# verses

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The multitude of your sacrifices, what is that to me, says the Lord? I am full. I do not desire holocausts of rams, nor the fat of fatlings, nor the blood of calves and of lambs and of he-goats.


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When you approach before my sight, who is it that requires these things from your hands, so that you would walk in my courts?


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You should no longer offer sacrifice vain. Incense is an abomination to me. The new moons and the Sabbaths and the other feast days, I will not receive. Your gatherings are iniquitous.


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My soul hates your days of proclamation and your solemnities. They have become bothersome to me. I labor to endure them.


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And so, when you extend your hands, I will avert my eyes from you. And when you multiply your prayers, I will not heed you. For your hands are full of blood.


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And then approach and accuse me, says the Lord. Then, if your sins are like scarlet, they shall be made white like snow; and if they are red like vermillion, they shall become white like wool.


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But if you are not willing, and you provoke me to anger, then the sword will devour you. For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.


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How has the faithful city, full of judgment, become a harlot? Justice lived in her, but now murderers.


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Your leaders are unfaithful, the associates of thieves. They all love gifts; they pursue rewards. They do not judge for orphans, and the widow’s case is not brought before them.


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Because of this, the Lord God of hosts, the Strength of Israel, says: Ah! I will be consoled over my enemies, and I will be vindicated from my adversaries.


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And I will turn my hand to you. And I will temper your dross unto purity, and I will take away all your tin.


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And I will restore your judges, so that they will be as before, and your counselors as in times long past. After this, you shall be called the City of the Just, the Faithful City.


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And he shall crush the accursed and sinners together. And those who have abandoned the Lord will be consumed.


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For they shall be confounded because of the idols, to which they have sacrificed. And you shall be ashamed over the gardens that you chose,


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And your strength will be like the embers from stubble, and your work will be like a spark, and both will burn together, and there will be no one to extinguish it.


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And in the last days, the mountain of the house of the Lord will be prepared at the summit of the mountains, and it will be exalted above the hills, and all the nations shall flow to it.


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And many peoples will go, and they will say: “Let us approach and ascend to the mountain of the Lord, and to the house of the God of Jacob. And he will teach us his ways, and we will walk in his paths.” For the law will go forth from Zion, and the Word of the Lord from Jerusalem.


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And he will judge the nations, and he will rebuke many peoples. And they shall forge their swords into plowshares, and their spears into sickles. Nation will not lift up sword against nation, neither will they continue to train for battle.


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For you have cast aside your people, the house of Jacob, because they have been filled up, as in past times, and because they have had soothsayers as the Philistines have, and because they have joined themselves to foreign servants.


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And their land has been filled with horses. And their four-horse chariots are innumerable. And their land has been filled with idols. They have adored the work of their hands, which their own fingers have made.


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And man has bowed himself down, and so man has become debased. Therefore, you should not forgive them.


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Enter into the rock, and hide in a ditch in the soil, from the presence of the fear of the Lord, and from the glory of his majesty.


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The lofty eyes of man have been humbled, and the haughtiness of men will be bowed down. Then the Lord alone shall be exalted, in that day.


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For the day of the Lord of hosts will prevail over all the proud and self-exalted, and over all the arrogant, and each one shall be humbled,


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And the loftiness of men will be bowed down, and the haughtiness of men will be brought low. And the Lord alone shall be exalted, in that day.


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And they will go into the caves of the rocks, and into the caverns of the earth, from the presence of the dread of the Lord, and from the glory of his majesty, when he will have risen up to strike the earth.


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In that day, man shall cast aside his idols of silver and his images of gold, which he had made for himself, as if to reverence the moles and the bats.


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And so he will go into the clefts of the rocks, and into the caverns of stone, from the presence of the dread of the Lord, and from the glory of his majesty, when he will have risen up to strike the earth.


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Therefore, rest away from man, whose breath is in his nostrils, for he considers himself to be exalted.


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For behold, the sovereign Lord of hosts will take away, from Jerusalem and from Judah, the powerful and the strong: all the strength from bread, and all the strength from water;


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the leader over fifty and the honorable in appearance; and the counselor, and the wise among builders, and the skillful in mystical speech.


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And the people will rush, man against man, and each one against his neighbor. The child shall rebel against the elder, and the ignoble against the noble.


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For a man will apprehend his brother, from the household of his own father, saying: “The vestment is yours. Be our leader, but let this ruin be under your hand.”


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In that day, he will respond by saying: “I am not a healer, and there is no bread or vestment in my house. Do not choose to appoint me as a leader of the people.”


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For Jerusalem is ruined, and Judah has fallen, because their words and their plans are against the Lord, in order to provoke the eyes of his majesty.


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The acknowledgement of their countenance is their response. For they have proclaimed their own sin, like Sodom; and they have not concealed it. Woe to their souls! For evils are being repaid to them.


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As for my people, their oppressors have despoiled them, and women have ruled over them. My people, who call you blessed, the same are deceiving you and disrupting the path of your steps.


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The Lord will enter into judgment with the elders of his people, and with their leaders. For you have been devouring the vineyard, and the plunder from the poor is in your house.


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Why do you wear down my people, and grind up the faces of the poor, says the Lord, the God of hosts?


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And the Lord said: Because the daughters of Zion have been lifted up, and have walked with extended necks and winking eyes, because they have continued on, walking noisily and advancing with a pretentious stride,


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the Lord will make the heads of the daughters of Zion bald, and the Lord will strip them of the locks of their hair.


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and the ornaments for their hair, and the anklets, and the touches of myrrh and little bottles of perfumes, and the earrings,


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and the continual changes in appearance, and the short skirts, and the fine linens and embroidered cloths,


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And in place of a sweet fragrance, there will be stench. And in place of a belt, there will be a rope. And in place of stylish hair, there will be baldness. And in place of a blouse, there will be haircloth.


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And seven women will take hold of one man, in that day, saying, “We will eat our own bread and wear our own clothing, only let us be called by your name, so as to take away our reproach.”


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In that day, the seedling of the Lord will have magnificence and glory, and the fruit of the earth will be greatly-esteemed and a source of joy to those who will have been saved out of Israel.


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And this shall be: all who are left behind in Zion, and who remain in Jerusalem, shall be called holy, all who have been written in life in Jerusalem.


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Then the Lord will have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and will have washed away the blood of Jerusalem from its midst, by means of a spirit of judgment and a spirit of intense devotion.


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And the Lord will create, over every place of Mount Zion and wherever he is called upon, a cloud by day and a smoke with the splendor of burning fire by night. For protection will be over every glory.


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And there will be a tabernacle for shade from the heat in daytime, and for security, and for protection from the whirlwind and from rain.


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I will sing to my beloved the canticle of my paternal cousin, about his vineyard. A vineyard was made for my beloved, at the horn in the son of oil.


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And he fenced it in, and he picked the stones out of it, and he planted it with the best vines, and he built a tower in the middle of it, and he set up a winepress within it. And he expected it to produce grapes, but it produced wild vines.


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What more should I have done for my vineyard that I did not do for it? Should I not have expected it to produce grapes, though it produced wild vines?


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And now, I will reveal to you what I will do to my vineyard. I will take away its fence, and it will be plundered. I will pull down its wall, and it will be trampled.


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And I will make it desolate. It will not be pruned, and it will not be dug. And briers and thorns will rise up. And I will command the clouds not to rain upon it.


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For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel. And the man of Judah is his delightful seedling. And I expected that he would do judgment, and behold iniquity, and that he would do justice, and behold an outcry.


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Woe to you who join house to house, and who combine field to field, even to the limits of the place! Do you intend to live alone in the midst of the earth?


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These things are in my ears, says the Lord of hosts. Otherwise, many houses, great and beautiful, will become desolate, without an inhabitant.


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Then ten acres of vineyard will produce one small bottle of wine, and thirty measures of seed will produce three measures of grain.


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Woe to you who rise up in the morning to pursue drunkenness, and to drink even until evening, so as to be inflamed with wine.


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Harp and lyre and timbrel and pipe, as well as wine, are at your feasts. But you do not respect the work of the Lord, nor do you consider the works of his hands.


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Because of this, my people have been led away as captives, for they did not have knowledge, and their nobles have passed away from famine, and their multitudes have dried up from thirst.


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For this reason, Hell has expanded its soul, and has opened its mouth without any limits. And their strong ones, and their people, and their exalted and glorious ones will descend into it.


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And man will be bowed down, and man will be humbled, and the eyes of the exalted will be brought low.


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And the lambs will pasture in proper order, and new arrivals will eat from the deserts turned into fertile lands.


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and who say: “Let him hurry, and let his work arrive soon, so that we may see it. And let the plan of the Holy One of Israel approach and arrive, so that we may know it.”


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Woe to you who call evil good, and good evil; who substitute darkness for light, and light for darkness; who exchange bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!


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For you justify an impious man in exchange for bribes, and you carry away the justice of a just man from him.


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Because of this, as the tongue of fire devours stubble, and as the heat of a flame burns it completely, so will their root become like glowing embers, and so will their offshoot ascend like dust. For they have cast aside the law of the Lord of hosts, and they have blasphemed the eloquence of the Holy One of Israel.


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For this reason, the fury of the Lord has been enraged against his people, and he has extended his hand over them, and he has struck them. And the mountains were disturbed. And their carcasses became like dung in the midst of the streets. After all this, his fury was not turned away; instead, his hand was still extended.


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And he will lift up a sign to nations far away, and he will whistle to them from the ends of the earth. And behold, they will rush forward speedily.


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There is no one weak or struggling among them. They will not become drowsy, and they will not sleep. Neither will the belt around their waist be loosened, nor the laces of their boots be broken.


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Their arrows are sharp, and all their bows are taut. The hoofs of their horses are like flint, and their wheels are like the force of a tempest.


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Their roaring is like the lion; they will roar like young lions. They will both roar and seize their prey. And they will wrap themselves around it, and there will be no one who can rescue it.


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And in that day, they will make a noise over it, like the sound of the sea. We will gaze out toward the land, and behold, the darkness of the tribulation, and even the light has been darkened by its gloom.


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In the year in which king Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, sublime and exalted, and the things that were under him filled the temple.


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The Seraphims were standing above the throne. One had six wings, and the other had six wings: with two they were covering his face, and with two they were covering his feet, and with two they were flying.


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And they were crying out to one another, and saying: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God of hosts! All the earth is filled with his glory!”


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And the lintels above the hinges were shaken at the voice of the one crying out. And the house was filled with smoke.


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And I said: “Woe to me! For I have remained silent. For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live in the midst of a people having unclean lips, and I have seen with my eyes the King, the Lord of hosts!”


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And one of the Seraphims flew to me, and in his hand was a burning coal, which he had taken with tongs from the altar.


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And he touched my mouth, and he said, “Behold, this has touched your lips, and so your iniquities will be taken away, and your sin will be cleansed.”


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


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And he said: “Go forth! And you shall say to this people: ‘When you listen, you will hear and not understand. And when you see a vision, you will not comprehend.’


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Blind the heart of this people. Make their ears heavy and close their eyes, lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and be converted, and then I would heal them.”


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And I said, “For how long, O Lord?” And he said, “Until the cities are desolate, without an inhabitant, and the houses are without a man, and the land will be left behind, deserted.”


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For the Lord will take the men far away, and she who will have been left behind will be multiplied in the midst of the earth.


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But still, there will be a tithing within her, and she will be converted, and she will be put on display, like a terebinth tree and like an oak which extends its branches. And what will remain standing within her will be a holy offspring.


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And it happened in the days of Ahaz, the son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, the king of Judah, that Rezin, the king of Syria, and Pekah, the son of Remaliah, king of Israel, ascended to Jerusalem to battle against it. But they were not able to defeat it.


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And they reported to the house of David, saying: “Syria has withdrawn to Ephraim.” And his heart was shaken, with the heart of his people, just as the trees of the forest are moved by the face of the wind.


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And the Lord said to Isaiah: Go out to meet Ahaz, you and your son, Jashub, who was left behind, to the end of the aqueduct, at the upper pool, on the road to the fuller’s field.


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And you shall say to him: “See to it that you are silent. Do not be afraid. And have no dread in your heart over the two tails of these firebrands, nearly extinguished, which are the wrath of the fury of Rezin, king of Syria, and of the son of Remaliah.”


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For Syria has undertaken a plan against you, with the evil of Ephraim and the son of Remaliah, saying:


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“Let us ascend to Judah, and stir it up, and tear it away for ourselves, and appoint the son of Tabeel as a king in its midst.”


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For the head of Syria is Damascus, and the head of Damascus is Rezin; and within sixty-five years from now, Ephraim will cease to be a people.


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For the head of Ephraim is Samaria, and the head of Samaria is the son of Remaliah. If you will not believe, you will not continue.


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Ask for a sign for yourself from the Lord your God, from the depths below, even to the heights above.


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And he said: “Then listen, O house of David. Is it such a small thing for you to trouble men, that you must also trouble my God?


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For this reason, the Lord himself will grant to you a sign. Behold, a virgin will conceive, and she will give birth to a son, and his name will be called Immanuel.


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But even before the boy knows to refuse evil and to choose good, the land that you detest will be abandoned by the face of her two kings.


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The Lord will lead over you, and over your people, and over the house of your father, such days as have not occurred since the days of the separation of Ephraim from Judah by the king of the Assyrians.


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And this shall be in that day: the Lord will call for the fly, which is in the most distant parts of the rivers of Egypt, and for the swarm, which is in the land of Assur.


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And they will arrive, and they all will rest in the torrents of the valleys, and in the caverns of the rocks, and in every thicket, and in every opening.


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In that day, the Lord will shave with a razor the ones hired by those who are across the river, by the king of the Assyrians, from the head to the hairs of the feet, with the entire beard.


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and, instead of an abundance of milk, he will eat butter. For all who are left behind in the midst of the land will eat butter and honey.


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And this shall be in that day: every place, where there were a thousand grapevines worth a thousand pieces of silver, will become thorns and briers.


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They will enter such places with arrows and bows. For briers and thorns will be throughout the entire land.


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But as for all the mountains, which will be dug with a hoe, the terror of thorns and briers will not approach those places. And there will be pasture land for oxen, and a range for cattle.”


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And the Lord said to me: “Take up for yourself a large book, and with a man’s pen write in it: ‘Take away the spoils quickly; plunder swiftly.’ ”


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And I summoned to myself faithful witnesses: Uriah, the priest, and Zechariah, the son of Berechiah.


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And I joined with the prophetess, and she conceived and gave birth to a son. And the Lord said to me: “Call his name: ‘Rush to take away the spoils; Hurry to be plundered.’


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For before the boy knows how to call to his father and his mother, the strength of Damascus and the spoils of Samaria will be taken away, in the sight of the king of the Assyrians.”


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“Because this people has cast aside the waters of Shiloah, which go forth silently, and has instead chosen Rezin and the son of Remaliah,


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for this reason, behold, the Lord will lead over them the waters of a river, strong and plentiful: the king of the Assyrians with all his glory. And he will rise up throughout all his streams, and he will overflow all his banks.


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And he will pass through Judah, inundating it, and he will cross over and arrive, even at its neck. And he will extend his wings, filling the breadth of your land, O Immanuel.”


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O people, gather together, and be conquered! All distant lands, listen! Be strengthened, and be conquered! Gird yourselves, and be conquered!


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Undertake a plan, and it will be dissipated! Speak a word, and it will not be done! For God is with us.


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For the Lord said this to me, and he has instructed this to me with a strong hand, lest I go forth in the way of this people, saying:


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“You should not say ‘It is conspiracy!’ For all that this people speaks is a conspiracy. And you should be frightened or alarmed with their fear.


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And so shall he be a sanctification to you. But he will be a stone of offense and a rock of scandal to the two houses of Israel, and a snare and a ruin to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.


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And I will wait for the Lord, who has concealed his face from the house of Jacob, and I will stand before him.


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Behold: I and my children, whom the Lord has given to me as a sign and a portent, in Israel, from the Lord of hosts, who lives on Mount Zion.


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And though they say to you, “Seek from seers and diviners,” they who hiss in their incantations, should not the people seek from their God, for the sake of the living, and not from the dead?


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And this is, moreover, for the sake of the law and the testimony. But if they do not speak according to this Word, then he will not have the morning light.


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And he will pass by it; he will fall and become hungry. And when he is hungry, he will become angry, and he will speak evil against his king and his God, and he will lift himself upward.


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And he will gaze downward to the earth, and behold: tribulation and darkness, dissolution and distress, and a pursuing gloom. For he will not be able to fly away from its distress.


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In the earlier time, the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali were lifted up. But in the later time, the way of the sea beyond the Jordan, the Galilee of the Gentiles, was weighed down.


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The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. A light has risen for the inhabitants of the region of the shadow of death.


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You have increased the nation, but you have not increased the rejoicing. They will rejoice before you, like those who rejoice at the harvest, like the victorious exulting after capturing the prey, when they divide the spoils.


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For you have prevailed over the yoke of their burden, and over the rod of their shoulder, and over the scepter of their oppressor, as in the day of Midian.


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For every violent plunder with a tumult, and every garment mixed with blood, will be burned up and will become fuel for the fire.


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For unto us a child is born, and unto us a son is given. And leadership is placed upon his shoulder. And his name shall be called: wonderful Counselor, mighty God, father of the future age, Prince of Peace.


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His reign will be increased, and there will be no end to his peace. He will sit upon the throne of David and over his kingdom, to confirm and strengthen it, in judgment and justice, from now even unto eternity. The zeal of the Lord of hosts shall accomplish this.


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And all the people of Ephraim will know it. And the inhabitants of Samaria will say it, in the arrogance and haughtiness of their heart:


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“The bricks have fallen, but we will build with squared stones. They have cut down the sycamores, but we will replace them with cedars.”


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And the Lord will raise up the enemies of Rezin over him, and he will turn his adversaries into a tumult:


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the Syrians from the east and the Philistines from the west. And they will devour Israel with their whole mouth. After all this, his fury was not turned away; instead, his hand was still extended.


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And so, the Lord will disperse, away from Israel, the head and the tail, he who bows down and he who refrains, in one day.


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And those who deceitfully praise this people, and those who are praised, will be thrown down violently.


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For this reason, the Lord will not rejoice over their youths. And he will not take pity on their orphans and widows. For each one is a hypocrite, and each one is wicked, and every mouth has spoken foolishness. After all this, his fury was not turned away; instead, his hand was still extended.


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For impiety has been kindled like a fire: it will devour brier and thorn, and it will burn in the dense forest, and it will be interwoven with the ascending smoke.


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The earth has been shaken by the wrath of the Lord of hosts, and the people will become like fuel for the fire. A man will not spare his own brother.


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And he will turn toward the right, and he will be hungry. And he will eat toward the left, and he will not be satisfied. Each one will eat the flesh of his own arm: Manasseh Ephraim, and Ephraim Manasseh, and together they will be against Judah.


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in order to oppress the poor in judgment, and to do violence to the case of the humble of my people, in order that widows may be their prey, and that they might plunder the orphan.


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What will you do on the day of visitation and calamity which is approaching from afar? To whom will you flee for assistance? And where will you leave behind your own glory,


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so that you may not be bowed down under the chains, and fall with the slain? Concerning all this, his fury was not turned away; instead, his hand was still extended.


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I will send him to a deceitful nation, and I will order him against the people of my fury, so that he may take away the plunder, and tear apart the prey, and place it to be trampled like the mud of the streets.


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But he will not consider it to be so, and his heart will not suppose it to be this way. Instead, his heart will be set to crush and to exterminate more than a few nations.


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“Are not my princes like many kings? Is not Calno like Carchemish, and Hamath like Arpad? Is not Samaria like Damascus?


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In the same manner as my hand reached the kingdoms of the idol, so also will it reach their false images, those of Jerusalem and of Samaria.


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And this shall be: when the Lord will have completed each of his works on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, I will act against the fruit of the exalted heart of king Assur, and against the glory of the haughtiness of his eyes.


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For he has said: “I have acted with the strength of my own hand, and I have understood with my own wisdom, and I have removed the limits of the people, and I have plundered their leaders, and, like one with power, I have pulled down those residing on high.


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And my hand has reached to the strength of the people, as to a nest. And, just as the eggs which have been left behind are gathered, so have I gathered the entire earth. And there was no one who moved a wing, or opened a mouth, or uttered a snarl.”


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Should the axe glorify itself over him who wields it? Or can the saw exalt itself over him who pulls it? How can a rod lift itself up against him who wields it, or a staff exalt itself, though it is only wood?


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Because of this, the sovereign Lord, the Lord of hosts, will send leanness among his fat ones. And under the influence of his glory, a burning ardor will rage, like a consuming fire.


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And the light of Israel will be like a fire, and the Holy One of Israel will be like a flame. And his thorns and briers will be set ablaze and devoured, in one day.


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And the glory of his forest and of his beautiful hill will be consumed, from the soul even to the flesh. And he will flee away in terror.


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And what remain of the trees of his forest will be so few, and so easily numbered, that even a child could write them down.


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And this shall be in that day: those not added to the remnant of Israel, and those who escape of the house of Jacob, will not lean upon him who strikes them. Instead, they will lean upon the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, in truth.


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For though your people, O Israel, will be like the sand of the sea, yet only a remnant of them will be converted. The consummation, having been shortened, will be inundated with justice.


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For the Lord, the God of hosts, will accomplish an abbreviation and a consummation, in the midst of all the earth.


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For this reason, the Lord, the God of hosts, says this: “My people, who inhabit Zion: do not be afraid of Assur. He will strike you with his rod, and he will lift up his staff over you, on the way of Egypt.


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But after a little while and a brief time, my indignation will be consumed, and my fury will turn to their wickedness.”


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And the Lord of hosts will raise up a scourge over him, like the scourge of Midian at the rock of Oreb, and he will raise up his rod over the sea, and he will lift it up against the way of Egypt.


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And this shall be in that day: his burden will be taken away from your shoulder, and his yoke will be taken away from your neck, and the yoke will decay at the appearance of the oil.


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It is still daylight, so stand at Nob. He will shake his hand against the mountain of the daughter of Zion, the hill of Jerusalem.


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Behold, the sovereign Lord of hosts will crush the little bottle of wine with terror, and the exalted in stature will be cut down, and the lofty will be brought low.


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And the Spirit of the Lord will rest upon him: the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and fortitude, the spirit of knowledge and piety.


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And he will be filled with the spirit of the fear of the Lord. He will not judge according to the sight of the eyes, nor reprove according to the hearing of the ears.


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Instead, he will judge the poor with justice, and he will reprove the meek of the earth with fairness. And he will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and he will slay the impious with the spirit of his lips.


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The wolf will dwell with the lamb; and the leopard will lie down with the kid; the calf and the lion and the sheep will abide together; and a little boy will drive them.


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The calf and the bear will feed together; their young ones will rest together. And the lion will eat straw like the ox.


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And a breastfeeding infant will play above the lair of the asp. And a child who has been weaned will thrust his hand into the den of the king snake.


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They will not harm, and they will not kill, on all my holy mountain. For the earth has been filled with the knowledge of the Lord, like the waters covering the sea.


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In that day, the root of Jesse, who stands as a sign among the people, the same the Gentiles shall beseech, and his sepulcher will be glorious.


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And this shall be in that day: the Lord will send forth his hand a second time to take possession of the remnant of his people who will be left behind: from Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Ethiopia, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea.


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And he will lift up a sign to the nations, and he will gather together the fugitives of Israel, and he will collect the dispersed of Judah from the four regions of the earth.


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And the envy of Ephraim will be taken away, and the enemies of Judah will perish. Ephraim will not be a rival to Judah, and Judah will not fight against Ephraim.


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And they will fly upon the shoulders of the Philistines through the sea; together they will plunder the sons of the east. Idumea and Moab will be under the rule of their hand, and the sons of Ammon will be obedient.


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And the Lord will desolate the tongue of the sea of Egypt. And he will lift up his hand over the river, with the strength of his Spirit; and he will strike it, in its seven streams, so that they may cross through it in their shoes.


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And there will be a way for the remnant of my people, who will be left behind by the Assyrians: just as there was for Israel in the day that he ascended from the land of Egypt.


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And you will say in that day: “I will confess to you, O Lord, because you have been angry with me; but your fury has been turned away, and you have consoled me.


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Behold, God is my savior, I will act faithfully, and I will not be afraid. For the Lord is my strength and my praise, and he has become my salvation.”


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And you will say in that day: “Confess the Lord, and invoke his name! Make his plans known among the peoples! Remember that his name is exalted!


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Exult and give praise, O habitation of Zion! For the Great One, the Holy One of Israel, is in your midst!”


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Over the foggy mountain lift up a sign! Raise the voice, lift up the hand, and let the rulers enter through the gates!


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In my wrath, I commanded my sanctified ones, and I called my strong ones, those who exult in my glory.


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On the mountains, there is the voice of a multitude, as if of a numerous people, a voice with the sound of kings, of nations gathered together. For the Lord of hosts has given orders to soldiers of war,


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to those who are arriving from a far off land, from the heights of the heavens. It is the Lord and the instruments of his fury, so that he may bring ruin to all the earth.


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Writhing and pain will seize them. They will be in pain, like a woman in labor. Each one will appear stupefied to his neighbor. Their countenances will be like faces which have been burned up.


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Behold, the day of the Lord approaches: a cruel day, full of indignation and wrath and fury, which will place the earth in solitude and crush the sinners from it.


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For the stars of the heavens, in their splendor, will not display their light. The sun will be obscured at its rising, and the moon will not shine in her brightness.


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And I will act against the evils of the world, and against the impious for their iniquity. And I will cause the pride of the unfaithful to cease, and I will bring down the arrogance of the strong.


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For this purpose, I will stir up heaven, and the earth will be moved from its place, because of the indignation of the Lord of hosts, because of the day of his furious wrath.


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And they will be like a doe fleeing away, or like sheep; and there will be no one who may gather them together. Each one will turn to his own people, and every one will flee to his own land.


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Their infants will be thrown down violently before their eyes. Their houses will be plundered, and their wives will be violated.


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Instead, with their arrows, they will put the little children to death, and they will take no pity on breastfeeding women, and their eye will not spare their children.


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And then Babylon, the glorious one among kingdoms, that famous pride of the Chaldeans, will be destroyed, even as the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.


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It will not be inhabited, even unto the end, and it will not be reestablished, even from generation to generation. The Arab will not pitch his tents there, nor will the shepherds take rest there.


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Instead, the wild beasts will rest there, and their houses will be filled with serpents, and ostriches will live there, and the hairy ones will leap about there.


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And the tawny owls will answer one another there, in its buildings, and the Sirens in its shrines of pleasure.


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Her time is drawing near, and her days will not be prolonged. For the Lord will take pity on Jacob, and he will still choose from Israel, and he will cause them to rest upon their own soil. And the new arrival will be joined to them, and he will adhere to the house of Jacob.


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And the people will take them, and lead them to their place. And the house of Israel will possess them, in the land of the Lord, as men and women servants. And they will take captive those who had taken them captive. And they will subjugate their oppressors.


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And this shall be in that day: when God will have given you rest from your labor, and from your oppression, and from the difficult servitude under which you served before,


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you will accept this parable against the king of Babylon, and you will say: “How is it that the oppressor has ceased, along with his tribute?


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which struck the people in wrath with an incurable wound, which subjugated the nations in fury, which persecuted with cruelty.


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The evergreens, too, have rejoiced over you, and the cedars of Lebanon, saying: ‘Since you have slept, no one has ascended who would cut us down.’


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Hell below was stirred up to meet you at your advent; it has awakened the giants for you. All the leaders of the earth have risen from their thrones, all the leaders among the nations.”


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Everyone will respond and will say to you: “Now you are wounded, just as we were; you have become like us.


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Your arrogance has been dragged down to Hell. Your body has fallen dead. The moths will be strewn beneath you, and the worms will be your covering.


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How is it that you have fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, who used to rise like the sun? How is it that you have fallen to the earth, you who wounded the peoples?


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And you said in your heart: ‘I will climb up to heaven. I will exalt my throne above the stars of God. I will be enthroned upon the mountain of the covenant, on the northern parts.


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Those who see you, will lean toward you, and will gaze upon you, saying: ‘Could this be the man who disturbed the earth, who shook kingdoms,


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who made the world into a desert and destroyed its cities, who would not even open a prison for his prisoners?’ ”


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All the kings of the nations throughout the whole world have slept in glory, each man in his own house.


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But you have been rejected from your grave, like a useless polluted plant, and you have been bound up with those who were slain by the sword, and who descended to the bottom of the pit, like a rotting carcass.


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You will not be associated with them, even in the grave. For you have destroyed your own land; you have slain your own people. The offspring of the wicked ones will not be called upon for eternity.


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Prepare his sons for the slaughter, according to the iniquity of their fathers. They will not rise up, nor inherit the earth, nor fill the face of the world with cities.


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But I will rise up against them, says the Lord of hosts. And I will perish the name of Babylon and its remnants: both the plant and its progeny, says the Lord.


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And I will appoint it as a possession for the hedgehog, with swamps of water. And I will sweep it out and wear it away with a brush, says the Lord of hosts.


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The Lord of hosts has sworn, saying: Surely, just as I have considered it, so shall it be, and in the same manner as I have drawn it through my mind,


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so shall it occur. So shall I crush the Assyrian in my land, and I will trample him upon my mountains, and his yoke will be taken away from them, and his burden will be removed from their shoulder.


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This is the plan that I have decided, concerning the entire earth, and this is the hand which is extended over all the nations.


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For the Lord of hosts has decreed it, and who is able to weaken it? And his hand is extended, so who can avert it?


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You should not rejoice, all you of Philistia, that the rod of him who struck you has been crushed. For from the root of the serpent will go forth a king snake, and his offspring will engulf that which flies.


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And the firstborn of the poor will be pastured, and the poor will rest in faithfulness. And I will cause your root to pass away by famine, and I will put to death your remnant.


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Wail, O gate! Cry out, O city! All of Philistia has been prostrated. For a smoke will arrive from the north, and there is no one who will escape his army.


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And what will be the response to this news among the nations? It will be that the Lord has established Zion, and that the poor of his people will hope in him.


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The burden of Moab. Because Ar of Moab has been destroyed by night, it is utterly silent. Because the wall of Moab has been destroyed by night, it is utterly silent.


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The house has ascended with Dibon to the heights, in mourning over Nebo and over Medeba. Moab has wailed. There will be baldness on all of their heads, and every beard will be shaven.


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At their crossroads, they have been wrapped with sackcloth. On their rooftops and in their streets, everyone descends, wailing and weeping.


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Heshbon will cry out with Elealeh. Their voice has been heard as far as Jahaz. Over this, the well-equipped men of Moab wail; each soul will wail to itself.


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My heart will cry out to Moab; its bars will cry out even to Zoar, like a three-year-old calf. For they will ascend weeping, by way of the ascent of Luhith. And along the way of Horonaim, they will lift up a cry of contrition.


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For the waters of Nimrim will be desolate, because the plants have withered, and the seedling has failed, and all the greenery has passed away.


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This is in accord with the magnitude of their works and of their visitation. They will lead them to the torrent of the willows.


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For an outcry has circulated along the border of Moab; its wailing even to Eglaim, and its clamor even to the well of Elim.


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Because the waters of Dibon have been filled with blood, I will place even more upon Dibon: those from Moab who flee the lion, and the survivors of the earth.


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O Lord, send forth the Lamb, the Ruler of the earth, from the Rock of the desert to the mountain of the daughter of Zion.


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And this shall be: like a bird fleeing away, and like fledglings flying from the nest, so will the daughters of Moab be at the passage of Arnon.


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Form a plan. Call a council. Let your shadow be as if it were night, even at midday. Conceal the fugitives, and do not betray the wanderers.


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My fugitives will live with you. Become a hiding place, O Moab, from the face of the destroyer. For the dust is at its end; the miserable one has been consumed. He who trampled the earth has failed.


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And a throne will be prepared in mercy, and One shall sit upon it in truth, in the tabernacle of David, judging and seeking judgment, and quickly repaying what is just.


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We have heard of the pride of Moab; he is very proud. His pride and his arrogance and his indignation is more than his strength.


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For this reason, Moab will wail to Moab; each one will wail. Speak of their wounds to those who rejoice upon the brick walls.


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For the suburbs of Heshbon are deserted, and the lords of the Gentiles have cut down the vineyard of Sibmah. Its vines have arrived even at Jazer. They have wandered in the desert. Its seedlings have been abandoned. They have crossed over the sea.


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I will weep with the tears of Jazer over this, the vineyard of Sibmah. I will inebriate you with my tears, Heshbon and Elealeh! For the sound of those who trample has rushed over your vintage and over your harvest.


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And so, rejoicing and exultation will be taken away from Carmel, and there will be no jubilation or exultation in the vineyards. He who was accustomed to tread will not tread out the wine in the winepress. I have taken away the sound of those who tread.


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And this shall be: when it is seen that Moab has struggled upon his high places, he will enter his holy places to pray, but he will not prevail.


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And now the Lord has spoken, saying: In three years, like the years of a hired hand, the glory of Moab concerning the entire multitude of the people will be taken away, and what is left behind will be small and weak and not so numerous.


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The burden of Damascus. Behold, Damascus will cease to be a city, and it will be like a heap of stones in ruin.


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The cities in ruin will be left for the flocks, and they will take rest there, and there will be no one who may terrify them.


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And assistance will cease from Ephraim, and the kingdom will cease from Damascus. And the remnant of Syria will be like the glory of the sons of Israel, says the Lord of hosts.


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And this shall be in that day: the glory of Jacob will be thinned, and the fatness of his flesh will be reduced.


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And it shall be like the gathering of the harvest which remains, and his arm will pick the ears of grain. And it shall be like a search for grain in the valley of Rephaim.


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And what is left behind in it will be like one cluster of grapes, or like a shaken olive tree with two or three olives at the top of a branch, or like four or five olives at the top of a tree, says the Lord God of Israel.


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And he will not bow before the altars that his hands have made. And he will not consider the things that his fingers have made, the sacred groves and the shrines.


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In that day, his strong cities will be abandoned, like the plows and the grain fields which were left behind before the face of the sons of Israel, and you shall be deserted.


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For you have forgotten God your Savior, and you have not remembered your strong Helper. Because of this, you will plant trustworthy plants, but you will sow a foreign seed.


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In the day of your planting, the wild grapevine and your morning seed will flourish. The harvest has been taken away to the day of inheritance, and you will grieve heavily.


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Woe to the multitude of many peoples, like the multitude of the roaring sea! Woe to the tumult of crowds, like the noise of many waters!


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The peoples will make a noise, like the noise of waters overflowing, but he will rebuke him, and so he will flee far away. And he will be quickly taken away, like the dust of the mountains before the face of the wind, and like a whirlwind before a tempest.


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In the time of the evening, behold: there will be a disturbance. When it is early morning, he will not remain. This is the portion of those who have devastated us, and this is the lot of those who have plundered us.


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which sends ambassadors by sea and in vessels of papyrus above the waters. Go forth, O swift Angels, to a nation which has been convulsed and torn apart, to a terrible people, after whom there is no other, to a nation apprehensive and downtrodden, whose land the rivers have spoiled.


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All inhabitants of the world, you who dwell upon the earth: when the sign will have been elevated on the mountains, you will see, and you will hear the blast of the trumpet.


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For the Lord says this to me: I will be quiet, and I will consider in my place, as the light at midday is clear, and as a cloud of dew in the day of the harvest.


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For before the harvest, all was flourishing. And it will spring forth with an untimely completion, and its little branches will be pruned with a curved blade. And what is left over will be cut away and shaken off.


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And together they will be abandoned to the birds of the mountains and to the wild beasts of the earth. And the birds will be continuously on them in the summer, and all the wild beasts of the earth will winter over them.


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In that time, a gift will be carried to the Lord of hosts, from a people divided and torn apart, from a terrible people, after whom there has been no other, from an apprehensive nation, apprehensive and downtrodden, whose land the rivers have ruined, and it will be carried to the place of the name of the Lord of hosts, to mount Zion.


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The burden of Egypt. Behold, the Lord will ascend upon a lofty cloud, and he will enter into Egypt, and the false images of Egypt will be moved before his face, and the heart of Egypt will waste away in its midst.


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And I will cause Egyptian to rush against Egyptian. And they will fight: a man against his brother, and a man against his friend, city against city, kingdom against kingdom.


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And the spirit of Egypt will be ruptured to its very core. And I will cast down their plan violently. And they will seek answers from their false images, and their diviners, and those led by demons, and their seers.


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And I will deliver Egypt into the hand of cruel masters, and a strong king will dominate them, says the Lord, the God of hosts.


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And the rivers will fail. The streams of its banks will diminish and dry up. The reed and the bulrush will wither away.


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The channel of the river will be stripped down to its source, and everything irrigated by it will dry up and wither and be no more.


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And the fishermen will grieve. And all who cast a hook into the river will mourn. And those who cast a net upon the surface of its waters will languish.


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The leaders of Tanis are foolish. The wise counselors of Pharaoh have given foolish counsel. How can you say to Pharaoh: “I am the son of wisemen, the son of the kings of antiquity?”


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Where are your wisemen now? Let them announce it to you, and let them reveal what the Lord of hosts intends for Egypt.


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The leaders of Tanis have become foolish. The leaders of Memphis have decayed. They have deceived Egypt, the corner of its people.


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The Lord has mixed a spirit of giddiness into its midst. And they have caused Egypt to err in all its works, like a drunken man who staggers and vomits.


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And there will be no work for Egypt that would produce a head or a tail, one who bows down or one who refrains from bowing down.


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In that day, Egypt will be like women, and they will be stupefied and fearful before the presence of the shaking hand of the Lord of hosts, the hand which he will move over them.


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And the land of Judah will be a dread to Egypt. Everyone who thinks about it will be terrified before the presence of the plan of the Lord of hosts, the plan which he has decided concerning them.


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In that day, there will be five cities in the land of Egypt which speak the language of Canaan, and which swear by the Lord of hosts. One will be called the City of the Sun.


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In that day, there will be an altar of the Lord in the midst of the land of Egypt and a monument of the Lord beside its borders.


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This shall be a sign and a testimony to the Lord of hosts in the land of Egypt. For they will cry out to the Lord before the face of the tribulation, and he will send them a savior and a defender who will free them.


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And the Lord will be acknowledged by Egypt, and the Egyptians will recognize the Lord in that day, and they will worship him with sacrifices and gifts. And they will make vows to the Lord, and they will fulfill them.


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And the Lord will strike Egypt with a scourge, and he will heal them. And they will return to the Lord. And he will be placated toward them, and he will heal them.


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In that day, there will be a way from Egypt to the Assyrians, and the Assyrian will enter into Egypt, and the Egyptian will be with the Assyrians, and the Egyptians will serve Assur.


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In that day, will Israel be the third to the Egyptian and the Assyrian, a blessing in the midst of the earth,


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which the Lord of hosts has blessed, saying: Blessed be my people of Egypt, and the work of my hands for the Assyrian, but Israel is my inheritance.


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In the year in which Tharthan entered into Ashdod, when Sargon, the king of the Assyrians, had sent him, and when he had fought against Ashdod and had captured it,


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in that same time, the Lord spoke by the hand of Isaiah, the son of Amoz, saying: “Go forth, and remove the sackcloth from your waist, and take your shoes from your feet.” And he did so, going out naked and barefoot.


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And the Lord said: Just as my servant Isaiah has walked naked and barefoot, as a sign and as a portent of three years over Egypt and over Ethiopia,


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so also will the king of the Assyrians force the captivity of Egypt, and the transmigration of Ethiopia: young and old, naked and barefoot, with their buttocks uncovered, to the shame of Egypt.


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And in that day, the inhabitants of a certain island will say: “Behold, this was our hope, we fled to them for help, to free us from the face of the king of the Assyrians. And now, how will we be able to escape?”


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The burden of the desert of the sea. Just as the whirlwinds approach from Africa, it approaches from the desert, from a terrible land.


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A difficult vision has been announced to me: he who is unbelieving, he acts unfaithfully, and he who is a plunderer, he devastates. Ascend, O Elam! Lay siege, O Media! I have caused all its mourning to cease.


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Because of this, my lower back has been filled with pain, and anguish has possessed me, like the anguish of a woman in labor. I fell down when I heard it. I was disturbed when I saw it.


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Prepare the table. Contemplate, from a place of observation, those who eat and drink. Rise up, you leaders! Take up the shield!


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For the Lord has said this to me: “Go and station a watchman. And let him announce whatever he will see.”


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And he saw a chariot with two horsemen, and a rider on an donkey, and a rider on a camel. And he considered them diligently, with an intense gaze.


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And a lion cried out: “I am on the watchtower of the Lord, standing continually by day. And I am at my station, standing throughout the night.


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Behold, a certain man approaches, a man riding on a two-horse chariot.” And he responded, and he said: “Fallen, fallen is Babylon! And all its graven gods have been crushed into the earth!


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O my threshed grain! O sons of 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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The burden of Dumah, cried out to me from Seir: “Watchman, how goes the night? Watchman, how goes the night?”


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The watchman said: “Morning approaches with the night. If you are seeking: seek, and convert, and approach.”


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You who inhabit the land of the south: upon meeting the thirsty, bring water; meet the fugitive with bread.


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For they are fleeing before the face of swords, before the face of a sword hanging over them, before the face of a bent bow, before the face of a grievous battle.


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For the Lord said this to me: “After one more year, just like one year for a hired hand, all the glory of Kedar will be taken away.


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And the remainder of the multitude of strong archers from the sons of Kedar will be few, for the Lord, the God of Israel, has spoken it.”


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The burden of the valley of vision. What does it mean to you, then, that each of you have even climbed to the rooftops?


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Filled with clamor, a busy city, an exultant city: your dead have not been slain by the sword, nor did they die in battle.


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All your leaders have fled together, and they have been bound by hardship. All who were found were chained together. They have fled far away.


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For this reason, I said: “Depart from me. I will weep bitterly. Make no attempt to console me, over the devastation of the daughter of my people.”


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For it is a day of death, and of trampling, and of weeping to the Lord, the God of hosts, in the valley of vision: examining the wall and the magnificence above the mountain.


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And Elam took up the quiver and the chariot of the horseman; and he stripped the wall of the shield.


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And your elect valleys will be filled with chariots, and the horsemen will position themselves at the gates.


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And the covering of Judah will be exposed, and in that day, you will see the weaponry of the forest house.


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And you will see breaches in the city of David, for these have been multiplied. But you have gathered together the waters of the lower fish-pool.


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And you have numbered the houses of Jerusalem. And you have destroyed the houses in order to fortify the wall.


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And you have made a pit between two walls for the waters of the ancient fish-pool. But you have not gazed upward to him who made it, and you have not considered, even from a distance, its Maker.


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And in that day, the Lord, the God of hosts, will call to weeping and mourning, to baldness and the wearing of sackcloth.


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But behold: gladness and rejoicing, the killing of calves and the slaughter of rams, the eating of meat and the drinking of wine: “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we will die.”


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And the voice of the Lord of hosts was revealed in my ears: “Surely this iniquity will not be forgiven you, until you die,” says the Lord, the God of hosts.


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Thus says the Lord, the God of hosts: Go forth and enter to him who lives in the tabernacle, to Shebna, who is in charge of the temple, and you shall say to him:


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“What are you here, or who are you claiming to be here? For you have hewn a sepulcher for yourself here. You have diligently hewn a memorial in a rock, as a tabernacle to yourself.


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Behold, the Lord will cause you to be carried away, like a domesticated rooster, and he will remove you, like an outer garment.


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He will crown you with a crown of tribulation. He will toss you like a ball into a broad and spacious land. There you will die, and there the chariot of your glory will be, for it is a shame to the house of your Lord.”


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And I will clothe him with your vestment, and I will strengthen him with your belt, and I will give your authority to his hand. And he shall be like a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah.


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And I will place the key of the house of David upon his shoulder. And when he opens, no one will close. And when he closes, no one will open.


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And I will fasten him like a peg in a trustworthy place. And he will be upon a throne of glory in the house of his father.


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And they will suspend over him all the glory of his father’s house: various kinds of vessels and every little article, from the vessels of bowls even to every instrument of music.


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In that day, says the Lord of hosts, the peg which was fastened in a trustworthy place shall be taken away. And he will be broken, and he will fall, and he will perish, along with all that had depended upon him, because the Lord has spoken it.


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The burden of Tyre. Wail, you ships of the sea! For the house, from which they were accustomed to go forth, has been laid waste. From the land of Kittim, this has been revealed to them.


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Be silent, you inhabitants of the island! The merchants of Sidon, crossing over the sea, have filled you.


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The offspring of the Nile is in the midst of many waters. The harvest of the river is her crop. And she has become the marketplace of the nations.


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Be ashamed, O Sidon! For the sea speaks, the strength of the sea, saying: “I have not been in labor, and I have not given birth, and I have not raised young men, nor have I promoted the development of virgins.”


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Is this not your place, which from its earliest days has gloried in its antiquity? Her feet will lead her to a sojourn far away.


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Who has made this plan against Tyre, which formerly was crowned, whose merchants were leaders, whose traders were illustrious on the earth?


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The Lord of hosts has planned this, so that he may tear down the arrogance of all glory, and may bring disgrace to all the illustrious of the earth.


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He has extended his hand over the sea. He has stirred up kingdoms. The Lord has given an order against Canaan, so that he may crush its strong.


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And he said: “You shall no longer increase so as to glory, while enduring calumny, O virgin daughter of Sidon. Rise up and set sail for Kittim; in that place, too, there will be no rest for you.”


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Behold, the land of the Chaldeans: never before was there such a people! Assur founded it. They have led away its strong ones into captivity. They have dug under its houses. They have left it in ruins.


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And this shall be in that day: you, O Tyre, will be forgotten for seventy years, like the days of one king. Then, after seventy years, there will be, for Tyre, something like the canticle of a harlot.


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Take up a stringed instrument. Circulate through the city, you harlot who had been forgotten. Sing many canticles well, so that you may be remembered.


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And this shall be after seventy years: the Lord will visit Tyre, and he will lead her back to her profits. And she will fornicate again with all the kingdoms of the world upon the face of the earth.


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And her businesses and her profits will be sanctified to the Lord. They will not be locked away and they will not be stored. For her business will be for those who will live in the presence of the Lord, so that they may eat until satisfied, and may be well-clothed even into old age.


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Behold, the Lord will lay waste to the earth, and he will strip it, and he will afflict its surface, and he will scatter its inhabitants.


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And this shall be: as with the people, so with the priest; and as with the servant, so with his master; as with the handmaid, so with her mistress; as with the buyer, so with the seller; as with the lender, so with the borrower; as with the creditor, so with the debtor.


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The earth mourned, and slipped away, and languished. The world slipped away; the loftiness of the people of the earth was weakened.


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And the earth was corrupted by its inhabitants. For they have transgressed the laws, they have changed the ordinance, they have dissipated the everlasting covenant.


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Because of this, a curse will devour the earth, and its inhabitants will sin. And for this reason, its caretakers will become crazed, and few men will be left behind.


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The vintage has mourned. The vine has languished. All those who were rejoicing in their hearts have groaned.


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The gladness of the drums has ceased. The sound of rejoicing has quieted. The sweetness of stringed instruments has been silenced.


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There will be a clamor for wine in the streets. All rejoicing has been abandoned. The gladness of the earth has been carried away.


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For so shall it be in the midst of the earth, in the midst of the people: it is as if the few remaining olives are being shaken from the olive tree, and it is like a few clusters of grapes, when the grape harvest has already ended.


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These few shall lift up their voice and give praise. When the Lord will have been glorified, they will make a joyful noise from the sea.


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Because of this, glorify the Lord in doctrine: the name of the Lord, the God of Israel, in the islands of the sea.


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From the ends of the earth, we have heard the praises of the glory of the Just One. And I said: “My secret is for myself! My secret is for myself! Woe to me! Those who would betray us have betrayed us, and they have betrayed us with the betrayal of transgression.”


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And this shall be: whoever will flee from the voice of dread will fall into the pit. And whoever will extricate himself from the pit will be caught in the snare. For the floodgates from above have been opened, and the foundations of the earth will be shaken.


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The earth will be utterly broken! The earth will be utterly crushed! The earth will be utterly shaken!


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The earth will stagger greatly, like a drunken man, and will be carried away, like the tent of a single night. And its iniquity will be heavy upon it, and it will fall and not rise up again.


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And this shall be: in that day, the Lord will visit upon the armies of the sky above, and upon the kings of the earth who are on the ground.


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And they will be gathered together like the gathering of one bundle into a pit. And they will be enclosed in that place, as in a prison. And after many days, they will be visited.


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And the moon will be ashamed, and the sun will be confounded, when the Lord of hosts will reign on mount Zion and in Jerusalem, and when he will have been glorified in the sight of his elders.


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O Lord, you are my God! I will exalt you, and I will confess your name. For you have accomplished miracles. Your plan, from antiquity, is faithful. Amen.


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For you have appointed a city as a tomb, a strong city for ruination, a house of foreigners: so that it may not be a city, and so that it may not be rebuilt forever.


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For you have been the strength of the poor, the strength of the indigent in his tribulation, a refuge from the whirlwind, a shadow from the heat. For the spirit of the mighty is like a whirlwind striking against a wall.


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You will bring low the uprising of foreigners, just as heat brings thirst. And like heat under a torrential cloud, you will cause the offshoot of the strong to wither away.


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And the Lord of hosts will cause all the peoples on this mountain to feast on fatness, to feast on wine, a fatness full of marrow, a purified wine.


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And he will cast down violently, on this mountain, the face of the chains, with which all peoples had been bound, and the net, with which all nations had been covered.


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He will violently cast down death forever. And the Lord God will take away the tears from every face, and he will take away the disgrace of his people from the entire earth. For the Lord has spoken it.


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And they will say in that day: “Behold, this is our God! We have waited for him, and he will save us. This is the Lord! We have endured for him. We will exult and rejoice in his salvation.”


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For the hand of the Lord will rest upon this mountain. And Moab will be trampled under him, just as stubble is worn away by a wagon.


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And he will extend his hands under him, like a swimmer extending his hands to swim. And he will bring down his glory with a clap of his hands.


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And the fortifications of your sublime walls will fall, and be brought low, and be torn down to the ground, even to the dust.


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In that day, this canticle will be sung in the land of Judah. Within it will be set the city of our strength: Zion, a savior, a wall with a bulwark.


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For he will bend down those living in the heights. He will bring low the lofty city. He will lower it, even to the ground. He will tear it down, even to the dust.


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And in the path of your judgments, O Lord, we have endured for you. Your name and your remembrance are the desire of the soul.


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My soul has desired you in the night. But I will also watch for you with my spirit, in my inmost heart, from the morning. When you accomplish your judgments upon the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn justice.


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Let us take pity on the impious one, but he will not learn justice. In the land of the holy ones, he has done iniquity, and so he will not see the glory of the Lord.


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Lord, let your hand be exalted, and let them not see it. May the envious people see and be confounded. And may fire devour your enemies.


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O Lord our God, other lords have possessed us apart from you, but in you alone let us remember your name.


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Let not the dead live; let not the giants rise up again. For this reason, you have visited and destroyed them, and you have perished all remembrance of them.


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You have been lenient to the people, O Lord, lenient to the people. But have you been glorified? You have removed all the limits of the earth.


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Lord, they have sought you in anguish. Your doctrine was with them, amid the tribulation of murmuring.


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Like a woman who has conceived and is approaching the time for delivery, who, in anguish, cries out in her pains, so have we become before your face, O Lord.


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We have conceived, and it is as if we were in labor, but we have given birth to wind. We have not brought forth salvation on the earth. For this reason, the inhabitants of the earth have not fallen.


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Your dead shall live. My slain will rise again. Be awakened, and give praise, you who live in the dust! For your dew is the dew of the light, and you shall be dragged down to the land of the giants, to ruination.


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Go, my people! Enter your chambers. Close your doors behind you. Conceal yourselves for a very brief time, until the indignation has passed over you.


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For behold, the Lord will go forth from his place, so that he may visit the iniquity of each inhabitant of the earth against him. And the earth will reveal its blood, and it will no longer cover its slain.


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In that day, the Lord will visit, with his harsh and great and strong sword, against Leviathan, the barred serpent, and against Leviathan, the twisted serpent, and he will slay the whale that is in the sea.


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I am the Lord, who watches over it. I will suddenly give drink to it. I will watch over it, night and day, lest perhaps someone visit against it.


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Indignation is not mine. Who will be a thorn and a brier to me in battle? I will advance against them. I set them on fire together.


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Or will he, instead, take hold of my strength? Will he make peace with me? Will she make peace with me?


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As they advance with violence against Jacob, Israel will flourish and spring forth, and they will fill the face of the world with offspring.


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Has he struck him with the scourge that he himself used to strike others? Or has he killed in the manner that he himself used to kill his victims?


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You will judge this by comparing one measure to another, when he has been cast out. He has decided this, by his stern spirit, for the day of heat.


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Therefore, concerning this, the iniquity of the house of Jacob will be forgiven. And this is the reward of all: that their sin be taken away, when he will have made all the stones of the altar to be like crushed cinders. For the sacred groves and the shrines shall not stand.


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For the fortified city will be desolate. The shining city will be abandoned and will be left behind like a desert. In that place, the calf will pasture, and in that place, he will lie down, and he will feed from its summits.


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Its harvest will be crushed by dryness. Women will arrive and teach it, for it is not a wise people. Because of this, he who made it will not take pity on it, and he who formed it will not spare it.


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And this shall be: in that day, the Lord will strike, from the channel of the river, even to the torrent of Egypt. And you shall be gathered together, one by one, O sons of Israel.


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And this shall be: in that day, a noise will be made with a great trumpet. And those who had been lost will approach from the land of the Assyrians, with those who had been outcasts in the land of Egypt. And they will adore the Lord, on the holy mountain, in Jerusalem.


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Woe to the crown of arrogance, to the inebriated of Ephraim, and to the falling flower, the glory of his exultation, to those who were at the top of the very fat valley, staggering from wine.


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Behold, the Lord is powerful and steadfast, like a storm of hail, like a crushing whirlwind, like the force of many waters, inundating, sent forth over a spacious land.


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And the falling flower, the glory of his exultation, who is at the summit of the fat valley, will be like a premature fruit before the ripeness of autumn, which, when the onlooker beholds it, as soon he takes it in his hand, he will devour it.


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In that day, the Lord of hosts will be the crown of glory and the wreath of exultation for the remnant of his people.


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And he will be the spirit of judgment for those who sit in judgment, and the strength of those who return from war to the gates.


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Yet truly, these also have been ignorant due to wine, and they have gone astray due to inebriation. The priest and the prophet have been ignorant because of inebriation. They have been absorbed by wine. They have staggered in drunkenness. They have not known the One who sees. They have been ignorant of judgment.


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To whom will he teach knowledge? And to whom will he grant an understanding of what is heard? To those who have been weaned from the milk, who have been pulled away from the breasts.


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So then: command, and command again; command, and command again; expect, and expect again; a little here, and a little there.


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He said to them: “This is my rest. Refresh the weary,” and, “This is my refreshment.” And yet they were unwilling to listen.


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And so, the word of the Lord to them will be: “Command, and command again; command, and command again; expect, and expect again; a little here, and a little there,” so that they may go forward and fall backward, and so that they may be broken and ensnared and captured.


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Because of this, listen to the word of the Lord, you mocking men, who lord it over my people who are at Jerusalem.


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For you have said: “We struck a deal with death, and we formed a pact with Hell. When the inundating scourge passes through, it will not overwhelm us. For we have placed our hope in lies, and we are protected by what is false.”


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For this reason, thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will set a stone within the foundations of Zion, a tested stone, a cornerstone, a precious stone, which has been established in the foundation: whoever trusts in him need not hurry.


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And I will establish judgment in weights, and justice in measures. And a hailstorm will overturn hope in what is false; and waters will inundate its protection.


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And your deal with death will be abolished, and your pact with Hell will not stand. When the inundating scourge passes through, you will be trampled down by it.


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Whenever it passes through, it will take you away. For, at first light of morning, it will pass through, in the day and in the night, and vexation alone will make you understand what you hear.


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For the bed has been narrowed, so much so that one alone would fall out, and the short blanket is not able to cover two.


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For the Lord will stand, just as at the mountain of divisions. He will be angry, just as in the valley which is in Gibeon, so that he may accomplish his work, his strange work, so that he may complete his work, his work which is foreign even to him.


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And now, do not be willing to mock, lest your chains be tightened. For I have heard, from the Lord, the God of hosts, about the consummation and the abridgement concerning the entire earth.


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Will he not, when he has made the surface level, sow coriander, and scatter cumin, and plant wheat in rows, and barley, and millet, and vetch in their places?


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For coriander cannot be threshed with a saw, and a cartwheel cannot revolve over cumin. Instead, coriander is shaken out with a stick, and cumin with a staff.


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But grain for bread must be crushed. Truly, the thresher cannot thresh it unceasingly, and the cartwheel can neither disrupt it, nor break it with its surface.


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And this has gone forth from the Lord, the God of hosts, so that he may accomplish his miraculous plan and magnify justice.


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Woe to Ariel, to Ariel the city against which David fought: year has been added to year, the solemnities have unfolded.


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And I will surround Ariel with siege works, and it will be in sorrow and mourning, and it will be like Ariel to me.


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And I will surround you like a sphere all around you, and I will raise up a rampart against you, and I will set up fortifications to blockade you.


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You will be brought low. You will speak from the ground, and your eloquence will be heard from the dirt. And, from the ground, your voice will be like that of the python, and your eloquence will mumble from the dirt.


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And the multitude of those who fan you will be like fine dust. And the multitude of those who have prevailed against you will be like embers fading away.


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And this will happen suddenly and swiftly. It will be visited from the Lord of hosts with thunder and earthquakes, and with the great noise of a whirlwind and a storm, and with a flame of devouring fire.


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And the multitude of all the nations that have struggled against Ariel will be like the dream of a vision by night, along with all who have battled, and besieged, and prevailed against it.


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And it will be like one who is hungry and dreams of eating, but, when he has been awakened, his soul is empty. And it will be like one who is thirsty and dreams of drinking, but, after he has been awakened, he still languishes in thirst, and his soul is empty. So shall the multitude of all the nations be, who have struggled against Mount Zion.


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Be stupefied and in wonder! Shake and quiver! Be inebriated, but not from wine! Stagger, but not from drunkenness!


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For the Lord has mixed for you a spirit of deep sleep. He will close your eyes. He will cover your prophets and leaders, who see visions.


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And the vision of all will be to you like the words of a sealed book, which, when they have given it to someone who knows how to read, they will say, “Read this,” but he will respond, “I cannot; for it has been sealed.”


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But if the book is given to someone who does not know how to read, and it is said to him, “Read,” then he will respond, “I do not know how to read.”


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And the Lord said: Since this people have drawn near to me only with their mouth, and their lips glorify me while their heart is far from me, and their fear of me is based on the commandments and doctrines of men,


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for this reason, behold, I will proceed to accomplish a wonder for this people, a great and mystifying miracle. For wisdom will perish from their wise, and the understanding of their prudent will be concealed.


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Woe to you who use the depths of the heart, so that you may hide your intentions from the Lord. Their works are done in darkness, and so they say: “Who sees us?” and “Who knows us?”


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This intention of yours is perverse. It is as if the clay were to plan against the potter, or as if the work were to say to its maker: “You did not make me.” Or it is as if what has been formed were to say to the one who formed it, “You do not understand.”


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In not more than a little while and a brief time, Lebanon will be turned into a fruitful field, and a fruitful field will be considered to be a forest.


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And in that day, the deaf will hear the words of a book, and out of darkness and obscurity the eyes of the blind will see.


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And the meek will increase their rejoicing in the Lord, and the poor among men will exult in the Holy One of Israel.


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For the one who was prevailing has failed, the one who was mocking has been consumed, and all those who were standing guard over iniquity have been cut down.


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For they caused men to sin by a word, and they supplanted him who argued against them at the gates, and they turned away from justice in vain.


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Because of this, thus says the Lord, he who has redeemed Abraham, to the house of Jacob: From now on, Jacob will not be confounded; from now on his countenance will not blush with shame.


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Instead, when he sees his children, they will be the work of my hands in his midst, sanctifying my name, and they will sanctify the Holy One of Jacob, and they will preach the God of Israel.


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And those who had gone astray in spirit will know understanding, and those who had murmured will learn the law.


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“Woe to the sons of apostasy!” says the Lord. For you would take advice, but not from me. And you would begin to weave, but not by my spirit. Thus do you add sin upon sin!


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You are walking so as to descend into Egypt, and you have not sought answers from my mouth, instead hoping for assistance from the strength of Pharaoh and placing trust in the shadow of Egypt.


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And so, the strength of Pharaoh will be your confusion, and trust in the shadow of Egypt will be your disgrace.


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They have all been confounded because of a people who were not able to offer profit to them, who were not of assistance, nor of other usefulness, except to offer confusion and reproach.


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The burden of the beasts in the south. In a land of tribulation and anguish, from which go forth the lioness and the lion, the viper and the flying king snake, they carry their riches upon the shoulders of beasts of burden, and their valuables upon the humps of camels, to a people who are not able to offer profit to them.


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For Egypt will offer assistance, but without purpose or success. Therefore, concerning this, I cried out: “It is only arrogance! Remain calm.”


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Now, therefore, enter and write for them upon a tablet, and note it diligently in a book, and this shall be a testimony in the last days, and even unto eternity.


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For they are a people who provoke to wrath, and they are lying sons, sons unwilling to listen to the law of God.


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They say to the seers, “Do not see,” and to those who behold: “Do not behold for us the things that are right. Speak to us of pleasing things. See errors for us.


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Take me from the way. Avert me from the path. Let the Holy One of Israel cease from before our face.”


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Because of this, thus says the Holy One of Israel: Since you have rejected this word, and you have hoped in calumny and rebellion, and since you have depended upon these things,


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for this reason, this iniquity will be to you like a breach that has fallen, and like a gap in a high wall. For its destruction will happen suddenly, when it is not expected.


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And it will be crushed, just as the earthen vessel of a potter is destroyed by a sharp blow. And not even a fragment of its earthenware will be found, which might carry a little fire from the hearth, or which might draw a little water from a hollow.


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For thus says the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel: If you return and are quiet, you shall be saved. Your strength will be found in silence and in hope. But you are not willing!


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And you have said: “Never! Instead, we will flee by horseback.” For this reason, you will be put to flight. And you have said, “We will climb upon swift ones.” For this reason, those who pursue you will be even swifter.


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A thousand men will flee in terror from the face of one, and you will flee in terror from the face of five, until you who have been left behind are like the mast of a ship at the top of a mountain, or like a sign on a hill.


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Therefore, the Lord waits, so that he may take pity on you. And therefore, he will be exalted for sparing you. For the Lord is the God of judgment. Blessed are all those who wait for him.


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For the people of Zion will live in Jerusalem. Bitterly, you will not weep. Mercifully, he will take pity on you. At the voice of your outcry, as soon as he hears, he will respond to you.


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And the Lord will give you thick bread and accessible water. And he will not cause your teacher to fly away from you anymore. And your eyes will behold your instructor.


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And your ears will listen to the word of one admonishing you behind your back: “This is the way! Walk in it! And do not turn aside, neither to the right, nor to the left.”


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And you will defile the plates of your silver graven images and the vestment of your gold molten idols. And you will throw these things away like the uncleanness of a menstruating woman. You will say to it, “Go away!”


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And wherever you sow seed upon the earth, rain will be given to the seed. And bread from the grain of the earth will be very plentiful and full. In that day, the lamb will pasture in the spacious land of your possession.


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And your bulls, and the colts of the donkeys that work the ground, will eat a mix of grains like that winnowed on the threshing floor.


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And there will be, on every lofty mountain, and on every elevated hill, rivers of running water, in the day of the slaughter of many, when the tower will fall.


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And the light of the moon will be like the light of the sun, and the light of the sun will be sevenfold, like the light of seven days, in the day when the Lord will bind the wound of his people, and when he will heal the stroke of their scourge.


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Behold, the name of the Lord arrives from far away. His fury is burning and heavy to bear. His lips have been filled with indignation, and his tongue is like a devouring fire.


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His Spirit is like a torrent, inundating, even as high as the middle of the neck, in order to reduce the nations to nothing, along with the bridle of error that was in the jaws of the people.


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There will be a song for you, as in the night of a sanctified solemnity, and a joy of heart, as when one travels with music to arrive at the mountain of the Lord, to the Strong One of Israel.


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And the Lord will cause the glory of his voice to be heard, and, with a threatening fury and a devouring flame of fire, he will reveal the terror of his arm. He will crush with the whirlwind and with hailstones.


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And when the passage of the staff has been begun, the Lord will cause it to rest upon him, with timbrels and harps. And with special battles, he will fight against them.


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For a burning place, deep and wide, has been prepared from yesterday, prepared by the King. Its nourishment is fire and much wood. The breath of the Lord, like a torrent of brimstone, kindles it.


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Woe to those who descend into Egypt for assistance, hoping in horses, and putting their trust in four-horse chariots because they are many, and in horsemen because they are exceedingly strong. And they have not believed in the Holy One of Israel, and they have not sought the Lord.


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Therefore, being wise, he has permitted harm, and he has not removed his words, and he will rise up against the house of the wicked and against those who assist the workers of iniquity.


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Egypt is man, and not God. And their horses are flesh, and not spirit. And so, the Lord will reach down his hand, and the helper will fall, and the one who was being helped will fall, and they will all be consumed together.


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For the Lord says this to me: In the same way that a lion roars, and a young lion is over his prey, and though a multitude of shepherds may meet him, he will not dread their voice, nor be afraid of their number, so will the Lord of hosts descend in order to battle upon mount Zion and upon its hill.


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Like birds flying, so will the Lord of hosts protect Jerusalem, protecting and freeing, passing over and saving.


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For in that day, a man will cast away his idols of silver and his idols of gold, which your hands have made for you unto sin.


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And Assur will fall by a sword not of man, and a sword not of man will devour him. And he will not flee from the face of the sword, and his young men will be subject to a penalty.


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And his strength will pass away in terror, and his princes will flee in fear. The Lord has said it. His fire is in Zion, and his furnace is at Jerusalem.


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And a man will be like someone hidden from the wind, who conceals himself from a storm, or like rivers of waters in a time of thirst, or like the shadow of a rock that juts out in a desert land.


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And the heart of the foolish will understand knowledge, and the tongue of those with impaired speech will speak quickly and plainly.


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For a foolish man speaks foolishness and his heart works iniquity in order to accomplish deception. And he speaks to the Lord deceitfully, so as to empty the soul of the hungry and to take away drink from the thirsty.


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The tools of the deceitful are very wicked. For they have concocted plans to destroy the meek by lying words, though the poor speak judgment.


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Yet truly, the prince will plan things that are worthy of a prince, and he will stand above the rulers.


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You opulent women, rise up and listen to my voice! O confident daughters, play close attention to my eloquence!


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For after a year and some days, you who are confident will be disturbed. For the vintage has been completed; the gathering will no longer occur.


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Be stupefied, you opulent women! Be disturbed, O confident ones! Strip yourselves, and be confounded; gird yourselves at the waist.


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Thorn and brier will rise up, over the soil of my people. How much more over all the houses of gladness, over the city of exultation?


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For the house has been forsaken. The multitude of the city has been abandoned. A darkness and a covering have been placed over its dens, even unto eternity. It will be the gladness of wild donkeys and the pasture of flocks,


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until the Spirit is poured over us from on high. And the desert will be a fruitful field, and the fruitful field will be considered as a forest.


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And the work of justice will be peace. And the service of justice will be quiet and secure, forever.


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And my people will be seated in the beauty of peacefulness, and in the tabernacles of faithfulness, and in the opulence of restfulness.


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Woe to you who plunder! Will you yourselves not also be plundered? And woe to you who despise! Will you yourselves not also be despised? When you will have completed your plundering, you will be plundered. When, out of fatigue, you will have ceased acting with contempt, you will be treated with contempt.


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O Lord, take pity on us. For we have waited for you. Be our arm in the morning and our salvation in the time of tribulation.


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And your spoils will be gathered together, just as the locusts are collected when the ditches have become filled with them.


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The Lord has been magnified, because he has lived on high. He has filled Zion with judgment and justice.


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And there will be faith in your times: the riches of salvation, wisdom and knowledge. For the fear of the Lord is his treasure.


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The roads have become desolate. Travelers have ceased along the paths. The covenant has been nullified. He has tossed aside cities. He has disregarded men.


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The earth has mourned and languished. Lebanon has been confounded and desecrated. And Sharon has become like a desert. And Bashan and Carmel have been struck together.


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And the people will be like the ashes from a fire. They will be consumed by fire like a bundle of thorns.


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The sinners in Zion are terrified; trembling has taken hold of the hypocrites. Who among you is able to live with a devouring fire? Who among you will live with an everlasting flame?


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The one who walks in justice and speaks the truth, who casts out avarice with oppression and shakes all bribes from his hands, who blocks his ears so that he may not listen to blood, and closes his eyes so that he may not see evil.


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Such a one will live on high; the fortification of rocks will be his lofty place. Bread has been given to him; his waters are reliable.


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Your heart will meditate on fear. Where are the learned? Where are those who ponder the words of the law? Where are the teachers of little ones?


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You will not look upon a shameless people, a people of exalted words. For you are not able to understand the dissertation of a tongue in which there is no wisdom.


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Look with favor upon Zion, the city of our solemnity. Your eyes will behold Jerusalem: an opulent habitation, a tabernacle that can never be taken away. Its stakes will not be taken away forever, nor will any of its cords be broken.


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For only in that place has our Lord been magnified. It is a place of rivers, very broad and open. No ship with oars will cross through it, nor will the great Greek ship pass through it.


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Your ropes have become loose, and they will not prevail. Your mast will be such that you will not be able to unfurl a flag. Then the spoils of much plunder will be divided. The lame will seize the spoils.


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He who is nearby will not say: “I am too weak.” The people who live in it will have their iniquity taken away from them.


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O nations and peoples: draw near, and listen, and pay attention! Let the earth and its fullness hear, the entire world and all its offspring.


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For the indignation of the Lord is over all the nations, and his fury is over all their armies. He has put them to death, and he has given them over to slaughter.


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Their slain will be cast out, and from their carcasses a foul odor will rise up. The mountains will languish because of their blood.


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And the entire army of the heavens will languish, and the heavens will be folded like a book. And their entire army will fall away, as a leaf falls from the vine or from the fig tree.


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“For my sword in heaven has been inebriated. Behold, it will descend upon Idumea, and upon the people of my slaughter, unto judgment.”


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The sword of the Lord has been filled with blood. It has been thickened by the blood of lambs and he-goats, by the innermost blood of rams. For the victim of the Lord is in Bozrah, and a great slaughter is in the land of Edom.


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And the single-horned beasts will descend with them, and the bulls along with the mighty. Their land will be inebriated by blood, and their ground by the fat of their lazy ones.


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And its torrents will be turned into tar, and its soil into sulfur. And its land will become burning tar.


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Night and day, it will not be extinguished; its smoke will rise up without ceasing. From generation to generation it will remain desolate. No one will pass through it, forever and ever.


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The pelican and the hedgehog will possess it. And the ibis and the raven will live in it. And a measuring line will be extended over it, so that it may be reduced to nothing, and a plumb line, unto desolation.


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Its nobles will not be in that place. Instead, they will call upon the king, and all its leaders will be as nothing.


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And thorns and nettles will rise up in its houses, and the thistle in its fortified places. And it will be the lair of serpents and the pasture of ostriches.


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And demons and monsters will meet, and the hairy ones will cry out to one another. There, the ogress has lain down and found rest for herself.


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In that place, the hedgehog has kept its den, and has raised its young, and has dug around them, and has kept them warm in its shadow. In that place, the birds of prey have joined together, one to another.


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Search and read diligently in the book of the Lord. Not one of them was lacking; not one has sought for the other. For what has proceeded from my mouth, he has commanded, and his very Spirit has gathered them.


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And he has cast lots over them. And his hand has distributed this to them by measure. They will possess it, even unto eternity. From generation to generation, they will dwell in it.


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The desolate and impassable land will rejoice, and the place of solitude will exult, and it will flourish like the lily.


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It will spring up and blossom, and it will exult with rejoicing and praising. The glory of Lebanon has been given to it, with the beauty of Carmel and Sharon. These will see the glory of the Lord and the beauty of our God.


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Say to the fainthearted: “Take courage and fear not! Behold, your God will bring the vindication of retribution. God himself will arrive to save you.”


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Then the disabled will leap like a buck, and the tongue of the mute will be untied. For the waters have burst forth in the desert, and torrents in solitary places.


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And the land that was dry will have a pond, and the thirsty land will have fountains of water. In the hollows where the serpents lived before, there will rise up the greenery of reed and bulrush.


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And there shall be a path and a road in that place. And it will be called the Holy Way. The defiled will not pass through it. For this will be an upright path for you, so much so that the foolish will not wander along it.


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There will be no lions in that place, and harmful wild animals will neither climb up to it, nor be found there. Only those who have been freed will walk in that place.


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And the redeemed of the Lord will be converted, and they will return to Zion with praising. And everlasting joy will be upon their heads. They will obtain gladness and rejoicing. For pain and sorrow will flee away.


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And it happened that, in the fourteenth year of king Hezekiah, Sennacherib, the king of the Assyrians, went up against all the fortified cities of Judah, and he seized them.


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And the king of the Assyrians sent Rabshakeh from Lachish into Jerusalem, to king Hezekiah, with a great force, and he stood near the aqueduct of the upper pool, at the road to the fuller’s field.


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And those who went to him were Eliakim, son of Hilkiah, who was over the house, and Shebna, the scribe, and Joah, son of Asaph, the historian.


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And Rabshakeh said to them: “Tell Hezekiah: Thus says the great king, the king of the Assyrians: What is this faith in which you believe?


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And by what counsel or strength would you prepare to rebel? In whom do you have faith, so much so that you would withdraw from me?


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Behold, you are trusting in Egypt, in that broken staff of a reed. But if a man were to lean against it, it would enter his hand and pierce it. So is Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, to all who trust in him.


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But if you answer me by saying: ‘We trust in the Lord our God.’ Is it not his high places and altars that Hezekiah has taken away? And he has said to Judah and to Jerusalem, ‘You shall worship before this altar.’


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And now, hand yourselves over to my lord, the king of the Assyrians, and I will give you two thousand horses, and you will not be able to find riders for them on your own.


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So how will you withstand the face of the ruler of even one place, of even the least of my lord’s subordinates? But if you trust in Egypt, in four-horse chariots and in horsemen:


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do I intend to go up against this land to destroy it without the Lord? But the Lord said to me, ‘Go up against this land, and destroy it.’ ”


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And Eliakim, and Shebna, and Joah said to Rabshakeh: “Speak to your servants in the Syrian language. For we understand it. Do not speak to us in the Jewish language, in the hearing of the people, who are upon the wall.”


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And Rabshakeh said to them: “Has my lord sent me to your lord and to you in order to speak all these words, and not even more so to the men who are sitting on the wall, so that they may eat their own dung and drink their own urine with you?”


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Then Rabshakeh stood up, and he cried out with a loud voice in the Jewish language, and he said: “Listen to the words of the great king, the king of the Assyrians.


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And do not let Hezekiah cause you to trust in the Lord, saying: ‘The Lord will rescue and free us. This city will not be given into the hands of the king of the Assyrians.’


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Do not listen to Hezekiah. For the king of the Assyrians says this: Act with me to your own benefit, and come out to me. And let each one eat from his own vine, and each one from his own fig tree. And let each one drink water from his own well,


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until I arrive and take you away to a land which is like your own: a land of grain and of wine, a land of bread and of vineyards.


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But you should not let Hezekiah disturb you, saying, ‘The Lord will deliver us.’ Have any of the gods of each of the nations delivered their land from the hand of the king of the Assyrians?


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Where is the god of Hamath and of Arpad? Where is the god of Sepharvaim? Have they freed Samaria from my hand?


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Who is there, among all the gods of these lands, who has rescued his land from my hand, so that the Lord would rescue Jerusalem from my hand?”


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And they remained silent and did not answer a word to him. For the king had commanded them, saying, “You shall not respond to him.”


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And Eliakim, son of Hilkiah, who was over the house, and Shebna, the scribe, and Joah, son of Asaph, the historian, entered to Hezekiah with their garments rent, and they reported to him the words of Rabshakeh.


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And it happened that, when king Hezekiah had heard this, he rent his garments, and he wrapped himself in sackcloth, and he entered the house of the Lord.


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And he sent Eliakim, who was over the house, and Shebna, the scribe, and the elders of the priests, covered with sackcloth, to Isaiah, the son of Amoz, the prophet.


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And they said to him: “Thus says Hezekiah: This day is a day of tribulation, and of rebuke, and of blasphemy. For the sons have arrived at the time for birth, but there is not enough strength to bring them forth.


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Perhaps, somehow, the Lord your God will hear the words of Rabshakeh, whom the king of the Assyrians, his lord, has sent to blaspheme the living God, and will rebuke the words that the Lord your God has heard. Therefore, lift up your prayers on behalf of the remnant which has been left behind.”


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And Isaiah said to them: “You shall say this to your lord: Thus says the Lord: Do not be afraid to face the words that you have heard, by which the servants of the king of the Assyrians blasphemed me.


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Behold, I will send a spirit to him, and he will hear a message, and he will return to his own land. And I will cause him to fall by the sword, in his own land.”


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Then Rabshakeh returned, and he found the king of the Assyrians fighting against Libnah. For he had heard that he had set out from Lachish.


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And he heard from Tirhakah, the king of Ethiopia: “He has gone forth so that he may fight against you.” And when he had heard this, he sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying:


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“You shall say this to Hezekiah, the king of Judah, saying: Do not let your God, in whom you trust, deceive you by saying: ‘Jerusalem will not be given into the hands of the king of the Assyrians.’


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Behold, you have heard about all that the kings of the Assyrians have done to all the lands that they have conquered, and so, how can you be delivered?


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Have the gods of the nations rescued those whom my fathers have conquered: Gozan, and Haran, and Rezeph, and the sons of Eden who were at Telassar?


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Where is the king of Hamath and the king of Arpad, or the king of the city of Sepharvaim, or of Hena and Ivvah?”


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And Hezekiah took the letter from the hand of the messengers, and he read it, and he went up to the house of the Lord, and Hezekiah spread it out in the sight of the Lord.


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“O Lord of hosts, the God of Israel who sits upon the Cherubim: you alone are God of all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth.


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O Lord, incline your ear and listen. O Lord, open your eyes and see. And hear all the words of Sennacherib, which he has sent to blaspheme the living God.


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And they have cast their gods into the fire. For these were not gods, but the works of men’s hands, of wood and of stone. And they broke them into pieces.


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And now, O Lord our God, save us from his hand. And let all the kingdoms of the earth acknowledge that you alone are Lord.”


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And Isaiah, the son of Amoz, sent to Hezekiah, saying: “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Because of what you have prayed to me about Sennacherib, the king of the Assyrians,


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this is the word that the Lord has spoken over him: The virgin daughter of Zion has despised you and mocked you. The daughter of Jerusalem has shaken her head at you.


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Whom have you insulted? And whom have you blasphemed? And against whom have you lifted up your voice and raised up your eyes on high? Against the Holy One of Israel!


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By the hand of your servants, you have reproached the Lord. And you have said: ‘With a multitude of my four-horse chariots, I have ascended the heights of the mountains adjoining Lebanon. And I will cut down its lofty cedars and its choice pine trees. And I will reach the top of its summit, to the forest of its Carmel.


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Have you not heard what I have done to it in past times? In ancient times, I formed it. And now I have brought it forth. And it has been made so that the hills and the fortified cities would fight together, unto its destruction.


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Their inhabitants had unsteady hands. They trembled and were confused. They became like the plants of the field, and the grass of the pastures, and like the weeds on the rooftops, which wither before they are mature.


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When you became angry against me, your arrogance rose up to my ears. Therefore, I will place a ring in your nose, and a bit between your lips. And I will turn you back on the road by which you arrived.


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But this shall be a sign for you: Eat, in this year, whatever springs up on its own. And in the second year, eat fruits. But in the third year, sow and reap, and plant vineyards, and eat their fruit.


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And what will be saved from the house of Judah, and what is left behind, will form deep roots, and will bear high fruits.


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For from Jerusalem, a remnant shall go forth, and salvation from mount Zion. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will accomplish this.


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For this reason, thus says the Lord about the king of the Assyrians: He will not enter this city, nor shoot an arrow into it, nor overtake it with a shield, nor dig a rampart all around it.


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He will return on the road by which he arrived. And into this city, he will not enter, says the Lord.


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And I will protect this city, so that I may save it for my own sake, and for the sake of David, my servant.”


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Then the Angel of the Lord went forth and struck down, in the camp of the Assyrians, one hundred eighty-five thousand. And they arose in the morning, and behold, all these were dead bodies.


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And Sennacherib, the king of the Assyrians, departed and went away. And he returned and lived at Nineveh.


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And it happened that, as he was adoring his god in the temple of Nisroch, his sons, Adramelech and Sharezer, struck him with the sword. And they fled into the land of Ararat. And Esarhaddon, his son, reigned in his place.


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In those days Hezekiah became ill and was near death. And so, Isaiah, the son of Amoz, the prophet, entered to him, and he said to him: “Thus says the Lord: Put your house in order, for you shall die, and you shall not live.”


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And he said: “I beg you, Lord, I beseech you, to remember how I walked before you in truth and with a whole heart, and that I have done what is good in your sight.” And Hezekiah wept with a great weeping.


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“Go and say to Hezekiah: Thus says the Lord, the God of David, your father: I have heard your prayer, and I have seen your tears. Behold, I will add fifteen years to your days.


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And I will rescue you and this city from the hand of the king of the Assyrians, and I will protect it.


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And this will be a sign for you from the Lord, that the Lord will do this word, which he has spoken:


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Behold, I will cause the shadow of the lines, which has now descended on the sundial of Ahaz, to move in reverse for ten lines.” And so, the sun moved backward by ten lines, through the degrees by which it had descended.


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The writing of Hezekiah, the king of Judah, after he had fallen ill and had recovered from his sickness:


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“I said: In the middle of my days, I will go to the gates of Hell. So I sought the remainder of my years.


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I said: I will not see the Lord God in the land of the living. I will no longer behold man, nor the habitation of rest.


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My longevity has been taken away; it has been folded up and taken from me, like the tent of a shepherd. My life has been cut off, as if by a weaver. While I was still beginning, he cut me off. From morning until evening, you have marked out my limits.


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I hoped, even until morning. Like a lion, so has he crushed all my bones. From morning until evening, you have marked my limits.


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I will cry out, like a young swallow. I will meditate, like a dove. My eyes have been weakened by gazing upward. O Lord, I suffer violence! Answer in my favor.


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What can I say, or what would he answer me, since he himself has done this? I will acknowledge to you all my years, in the bitterness of my soul.


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O Lord, if such is life, and if the life of my spirit is of such a kind, may you correct me and may you cause me to live.


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Behold, in peace my bitterness is most bitter. But you have rescued my soul, so that it would not perish. You have cast all my sins behind your back.


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For Hell will not confess to you, and death will not praise you. Those who descend into the pit will not hope for your truth.


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The living, the living, these will give praise to you, as I also do this day! The father will make the truth known to the sons.


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Now Isaiah had ordered them to take a paste of figs, and to spread it like plaster over the wound, so that he would be healed.


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At that time, Merodach Baladan, the son of Baladan, the king of Babylon, sent letters and gifts to Hezekiah. For he had heard that he had fallen ill and had recovered.


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And Hezekiah rejoiced over them, and he showed them the storehouses of his aromatic spices, and of the silver and gold, and of the perfumes and precious ointments, and all the repositories for his belongings, and all the things that were found in his treasures. There was nothing in his house, nor in all his dominion, that Hezekiah did not show them.


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Then Isaiah the prophet entered before king Hezekiah, and he said to him, “What did these men say, and from where did they come to you?” And Hezekiah said, “They came to me from a far away land, from Babylon.”


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And he said, “What did they see in your house?” And Hezekiah said: “They have seen all the things that are in my house. There was nothing that I did not show them among my treasures.”


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Behold, the days are coming when all that is in your house, and all that your fathers have stored up, even to this day, will be taken away to Babylon. There will be nothing left behind, says the Lord.


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And your children, who will issue from you, whom you will produce, they will be taken away. And they will become eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.”


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And Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “The word of the Lord which he has spoken is good.” And he said, “But let there be peace and truth in my days.”


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Speak to the heart of Jerusalem, and call out to her! For her malice has reached its end. Her iniquity has been forgiven. She has received double for all her sins from the hand of the Lord.


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The voice of one crying out in the desert: “Prepare the way of the Lord! Make straight the paths of our God, in a solitary place.


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Every valley will be exalted, and every mountain and hill will be brought low. And the crooked will be straightened, and the uneven will become level ways.


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And the glory of the Lord will be revealed. And all flesh together will see that the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”


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The voice of one saying, “Cry out!” And I said, “What should I cry out?” “All flesh is grass, and all its glory is like the flower of the field.


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The grass has dried up, and the flower has fallen. For the Spirit of the Lord has blown over it. Truly, the people are like grass.


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You who evangelize Zion, climb a high mountain! You who evangelize Jerusalem, lift up your voice with strength! Lift it up! Do not be afraid! Say to the cities of Judah: “Behold, your God!”


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Behold, the Lord God will arrive in strength, and his arm will rule. Behold, his reward is with him, and his work is before him.


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He will pasture his flock like a shepherd. He will gather together the lambs with his arm, and he will lift them up to his bosom, and he himself will carry the very young.


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Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and who has weighed the heavens with his palm? Who has suspended the mass of the earth with three fingers, and who has weighed the mountains on a balance and the hills on a scale?


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Who has assisted the Spirit of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor and has revealed things to him?


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With whom has he consulted? And who has instructed him, and taught him the path of justice, and guided him to knowledge, and revealed the way of understanding to him?


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Behold, the nations are like a drop of water in a bucket, and they are considered as the smallest grain on a balance. Behold, the islands are like a little dust.


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And Lebanon will not be sufficient to start a fire, and its animals will not be sufficient for a burnt offering.


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All the nations in his sight are as if they did not exist, and they are considered by him as if they were nothingness and emptiness.


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Should the workman cast a statue? Or has the goldsmith formed it with gold, or the silversmith with plates of silver?


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He has chosen strong wood that will not decay. The skillful artisan seeks a way to set up an idol that cannot be moved.


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Do you not know? Have you not heard? Has it not been announced to you from the beginning? Have you not understood the foundations of the earth?


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He is the One who sits upon the globe of the earth, and its inhabitants are like locusts. He extends the heavens as if they were nothing, and he spreads them out like a tent, in which to dwell.


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He has brought those who examine what is secret to nothingness. He has brought the judges of the earth to emptiness.


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And certainly, their stalk was neither planted, nor sown, nor rooted in the ground. He has suddenly blown them across them, and they have withered, and a whirlwind will carry them away like chaff.


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Lift up your eyes on high, and see who has created these things. He leads forth their army by number, and he calls them all by name. Because of the fullness of his strength and robustness and virtue, not one of them was left behind.


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Why do you say this, O Jacob, and why do you speak this way, O Israel? “My way has been hidden from the Lord, and my judgment escaped notice by my God.”


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Do you not know, or have you not heard? The Lord is the eternal God, who has created the limits of the earth. He does not diminish, and he does not struggle. Neither is his wisdom searchable.


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It is he who gives strength to the weary, and it is he who increases fortitude and strength in those who are failing.


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But those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will take up wings like eagles. They will run and not struggle. They will walk and not tire.


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Let the islands be silent before me, and let the nations take new strength. Let them draw near, and then speak. Let us apply for judgment together.


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Who has raised up a just man from the east, and has called him to follow him? He will place the nations under his gaze, and he will rule over kings. He will cause them to be like dust before his sword, like chaff driven by the wind before his bow.


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Who has worked and accomplished these things, calling to the generations from the beginning? “It is I, the Lord! I am the first and the last.”


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The islands saw it and were afraid. The ends of the earth were stupefied. They drew near and arrived.


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The coppersmith striking with the mallet encouraged him who was forging at that time, saying, “It is ready for soldering.” And he strengthened it with nails, so that it would not be moved.


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For his sake, I have taken you from the ends of the earth, and I have called you from its distant places. And I said to you: “You are my servant. I have chosen you, and I have not cast you aside.”


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Do not be afraid, for I am with you. Do not turn away, for I am your God. I have strengthened you, and I have assisted you, and the right hand of my just one has upheld you.


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Behold, all who fight against you shall be confounded and ashamed. They will be as if they did not exist, and the men who contradict you will perish.


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You will seek them, and you will not find them. The men who rebel against you will be as if they did not exist. And the men who make war against you will be like something that has been consumed.


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For I am the Lord your God. I take you by your hand, and I say to you: Do not be afraid. I have helped you.


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Fear not, O worm of Jacob, you who are dead within Israel. I have helped you, says the Lord, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel.


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I have established you like a new threshing cart, having serrated blades. You will thresh the mountains and crush them. And you will turn the hills into chaff.


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You will winnow them, and the wind will blow them away, and the whirlwind will scatter them. And you shall exult in the Lord; you shall rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.


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The indigent and the poor are seeking water, but there is none. Their tongue has been dried up by thirst. I, the Lord, will heed them. I, the God of Israel, will not abandon them.


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I will open rivers in the high hills, and fountains in the midst of the plains. I will turn the desert into pools of water, and the impassable land into streams of water.


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I will plant the cedar in a deserted place, with the thorn, and the myrtle, and the olive tree. In the desert, I will plant the pine, and the elm, and the box tree together,


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so that they may see and know, acknowledge and understand, together, that the hand of the Lord has accomplished this, and that the Holy One of Israel has created it.


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Bring your case forward, says the Lord. Bring it here, if you have anything to allege, says the King of Jacob.


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Let them approach and announce to us the things that will occur. Announce to us the things that were before. And we will apply our heart to them, and we will know their end. And so, reveal to us the things that will occur.


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Announce the things that will occur in the future, and we will know that you are gods. Likewise, accomplish good or evil, if you are able, and let us speak of it and see it together.


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Behold, you exist out of nothing, and your work is from what does not exist; he who has chosen you is an abomination.


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I have raised up one from the north, and he will arrive from the rising of the sun. He will call upon my name, and he will reduce magistrates to mud, like a potter working with clay.


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Who has announced this from its rising, so that we may know it, or from its beginning, so that we may say, “You are just.” There is no one who either announces, or predicts, or hears your words.


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The first one will say to Zion: “Behold, they are here,” and to Jerusalem, “I will present an evangelist.”


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And I saw, and there was no one among any of them to consult, or who, when I asked, could answer a word.


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Behold my servant, I will uphold him, my elect, with him my soul is well-pleased. I have sent my Spirit upon him. He will offer judgment to the nations.


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He will not cry out, and he will not show favoritism to anyone; neither will his voice be heard abroad.


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The bruised reed he will not break, and the smoldering wick he will not extinguish. He will lead forth judgment unto truth.


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He will not be saddened or troubled, until he establishes judgment on earth. And the islands will await his law.


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Thus says the Lord God, who created the heavens and expanded it, who formed the earth and all that springs from it, who gives breath to the people in it, and spirit to those walking on it.


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I, the Lord, have called you in justice, and I have taken your hand and preserved you. And I have presented you as a covenant of the people, as a light to the Gentiles,


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so that you may open the eyes of the blind, and lead out the prisoner from confinement and those sitting in darkness from the house of incarceration.


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I am the Lord; this is my name. I will not give my glory to another, nor my praise to graven things.


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The things that were first, behold, they have arrived. And I also announce what is new. Before these things arise, I will cause you to hear about them.


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Sing to the Lord a new canticle, sing his praise from the ends of the earth, you who descend into the sea and all its fullness, the islands and their inhabitants.


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Let the desert and its cities be lifted up. Kedar will dwell in houses. O inhabitants of the rock, give praise! They will cry out from the top of the mountains.


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The Lord will go forth like a strong man; like a man of battle, he will stir up zeal. He will shout and cry out. He will prevail against his enemies.


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I have always been quiet; I have been silent; I have been patient. I will speak like a woman giving birth. I will destroy and consume, all at once.


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I will desolate the mountains and the hills, and I will wither all their grass. And I will turn rivers into islands, and I will dry up the pools of water.


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And I will lead the blind along a way which they do not know. And I will cause them to walk along paths with which they were unfamiliar. I will turn darkness into light before them, and crooked into straight. These things I have done for them. For I have not abandoned them.


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They have been converted again. Let those who trust in graven idols be greatly confounded, for they say to a molten thing, “You are our god.”


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Who is blind, except my servant? Who is deaf, except the one to whom I have sent my messengers? Who is blind, except the one who has been sold? And who is blind, except the servant of the Lord?


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But this same people has robbed and laid waste. All their youth are a snare, and they have been hidden in houses of confinement. They have become victims; there is no one who may rescue them. They have been plundered; there is no one who may say, “Restore.”


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Who has handed over Jacob into plunder, and Israel into devastation? It is not the Lord himself, against whom we have sinned? And they were not willing to walk in his ways, and they have not listened to his law.


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And so, he poured out over him the indignation of his fury and a strong battle. And he burned him all around, and he did not realize it. And he set him on fire, and he did not understand it.


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And now thus says the Lord who created you, O Jacob, and who formed you, O Israel: Do not be afraid. For I have redeemed you, and I have called you by your name. You are mine.


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When you pass through the waters, I will be with you, and the rivers will not cover you. When you walk through fire, you will not be burned, and the flames will not scorch you.


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For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Saviour. I have presented Egypt as your atonement, Ethiopia and Seba on your behalf.


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Since then, you have become honorable in my eyes, and glorious. I have loved you, and I will present men on behalf of you, and people on behalf of your life.


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Fear not, for I am with you. I will lead your offspring from the East, and I will gather you from the West.


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I will say to the North, “Release him,” and to the South, “Do not turn him away.” Bring my sons from far away, and my daughters from the ends of the earth.


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And each one who calls upon my name, I have created for my glory. I have formed him, and I have made him.


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All the nations have been assembled together, and the tribes have been collected. Who among you will announce this, and who will cause us to listen to the things that are first? Let them present their witnesses. Let them act justly, and listen, and say: “It is true.”


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You are my witnesses, says the Lord, and you are my servant, whom I have chosen, so that you may know, and may believe in me, and so that you may understand that I am the same. Before me, there was no god formed, and after me there will be none.


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I have announced, and I have saved. I have caused it to be heard. And there was no stranger among you. You are my witnesses, says the Lord, and I am God.


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And from the beginning, I am the same. And there is no one who can rescue from my hand. I act, and who can turn it aside?


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Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: For your sake, I sent to Babylon, and tore down all their bars, with the Chaldeans who glory in their ships.


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who led out the chariot and the horse, the column of robust troops. They went to sleep together, and they will not arise. They have been crushed like flax, and they have been extinguished.


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Behold, I am accomplishing new things. And presently, they will spring forth. With certainty, you will know them. I will make a way in the desert, and rivers in an impassible place.


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The wild beasts of the field will glorify me, with the serpents and the ostriches. For I have brought waters to the desert, rivers to inaccessible places, in order to give drink to my people, to my elect.


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You have not offered me the ram of your holocaust, and you have not glorified me with your victims. I have not burdened you with oblations, nor have I wearied you with incense.


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You have bought me no sweet cane with money, and you have not inebriated me with the fat of your victims. Yet truly, you have burdened me with your sins; you have wearied me with your iniquities.


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I am. I am the very One who wipes away your iniquities for my own sake. And I will not remember your sins.


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Call me to mind, and let us go to judgment together. If you have anything to justify yourself, explain it.


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And so, I have defiled the holy leaders. I have handed over Jacob to slaughter, and Israel to calumny.


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Thus says the Lord, who made and formed you, your Helper from the womb: Do not be afraid, Jacob, my servant and my most righteous, whom I have chosen.


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For I will pour out waters upon the thirsty ground, and rivers upon the dry land. I will pour out my Spirit upon your offspring, and my benediction upon your stock.


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This one will say, “I am the Lord’s,” and that one will call himself by the name of Jacob, and yet another will write with his hand, “For the Lord,” and he will take the name Israel.


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Thus says the Lord, the King and Redeemer of Israel, the Lord of hosts: I am the first, and I am the last, and there is no God apart from me.


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Who is like me? Let him call out and announce it. And let him explain to me the order of things, since it is I who appointed the ancient people. The things of the near and the distant future, let him announce them.


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Do not be afraid, and do not be disturbed. From the time when I caused you to listen, I also announced it. You are my witnesses. Is there another God beside me, also a Maker, whom I have not known?


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All of those who create idols are nothing, and their most beloved things will not benefit them. These are their witnesses, for they do not see, and they do not understand, so that they might be confounded.


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Behold, all those who partake in this will be confounded. For these makers are men. They will all assemble together. They will stand and be terrified. And they will be confounded together.


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The maker of iron has wrought with his file. With coals and hammers, he has formed it, and he has wrought with the strength of his arm. He will hunger and grow faint. He will not drink water, and he will become weary.


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The maker of wood has extended his ruler. He has formed it with a plane. He has made it with corners, and he has smoothed its curves. And he has made the image of a man, a seemingly beautiful man, dwelling in a house.


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He has cut down cedars; he has taken the evergreen oak, and the oak that stood among the trees of the forest. He has planted the pine tree, which the rain has nourished.


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And it is used by men for fuel. He took from it and warmed himself. And he set it on fire and baked bread. But from the remainder, he made a god, and he adored it. He made an idol, and he bowed down before it.


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Part of it, he burned with fire, and with part of it, he cooked meat; he boiled food and was filled. And he was warmed, and so he said: “Ah, I am warm. I have gazed at the fire.”


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But from its remainder, he made a god and a graven image for himself. He bowed down before it, and he adored it, and he prayed to it, saying: “Free me! For you are my god.”


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They have neither known nor understood. For their eyes are obscured, lest they see with their eyes and understand with their heart.


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They do not consider in their mind, nor do they know, nor do they think to say: “I have burned part of it in the fire, and I have baked bread upon its coals. I have cooked flesh and I have eaten. And from its remainder, should I make an idol? Should I fall prostrate before the trunk of a tree?”


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Part of it is ashes. His foolish heart adores it. And he will not liberate his soul, and he will not say, “Perhaps there is a lie in my right hand.”


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Remember these things, O Jacob, O Israel. For you are my servant. I have formed you. You are my servant, Israel. Do not forget me.


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I have wiped away your iniquities like a cloud, and your sins like a mist. Return to me, because I have redeemed you.


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Give praise, O heavens! For the Lord has shown mercy. Shout with joy, O ends of the earth! Let the mountains resound with praise, with the forest and all its trees. For the Lord has redeemed Jacob, and Israel will be glorified.


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Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, and your Maker from the womb: I am the Lord, who makes all things, who alone extends the heavens, who makes the earth firm. And there is no one with me.


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I make the signs of the diviners useless, and I turn the seers to madness. I turn the wise backwards, and make their knowledge into foolishness.


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I lift up the word of my servant, and I fulfill the counsel of my messengers. I say to Jerusalem, “You shall be inhabited,” and to the cities of Judah, “You shall be rebuilt,” and I will lift up its deserts.


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I say to Cyrus, “You are my shepherd, and you will accomplish all that I will.” I say to Jerusalem, “You shall be built,” and to the Temple, “Your foundations shall be laid.”


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Thus says the Lord to my anointed Cyrus, whose right hand I hold, so that I may subjugate the nations before his face, and I may turn the backs of kings, and I may open the doors before him, and so that the gates will not be shut.


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I will go before you. And I will humble the glorious ones of the earth. I will shatter the gates of brass, and I will break apart the bars of iron.


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And I will give you hidden treasures and the knowledge of secret things, so that you may know that I am the Lord, the God of Israel, who calls your name.


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For the sake of Jacob, my servant, and Israel, my elect, I have even called you by your name. I have taken you up, and you have not known me.


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I am the Lord, and there is no one else. There is no god beside me. I girded you, and you have not known me.


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So may those who are from the rising of the sun, and those who are from its setting, know that there is no one beside me. I am the Lord, and there is no other.


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I form the light and create the darkness. I make peace and create disaster. I, the Lord, do all these things.


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Send down dew from above, O heavens, and let the clouds rain down upon the just! Let the earth open and spring forth a savior! And let justice rise up at once! I, the Lord, have created him.


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Woe to him who contradicts his Maker, a mere shard from an earthen vessel! Should the clay say to the potter, “What are you making?” or, “Your work is not made by your hands?”


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Thus says the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, his Maker: Would you question me about the future, concerning my sons, and command me concerning the work of my hands?


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I made the earth, and I created man upon it. My hand stretched out the heavens, and I have commanded all their hosts.


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I have raised him up unto justice, and I will direct all his ways. He himself will build my city and release my captives, but not for ransom or gifts, says the Lord, the God of hosts.


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Thus says the Lord: The labor of Egypt, and the business dealings of Ethiopia, and of the Sabeans, men of stature, will pass to you and will be yours. They will walk behind you. They will travel, bound in irons. And they will adore you and petition you: “In you alone is God, and there is no God apart from you.


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They have all been confounded and should be ashamed! These fabricators of errors have departed together into confusion!


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Israel is saved in the Lord by an eternal salvation. You will not be confounded, and you will not be ashamed, even forever and ever.


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For thus says the Lord, who created the heavens, God himself who formed the earth and made it, the very Molder of it. He did not create it to no purpose. He formed it so that it would be inhabited. I am the Lord, and there is no other.


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I have not spoken in secret, in a dark place of the earth. I have not said to the offspring of Jacob, “Seek me in vain.” I am the Lord, who speaks justice, who announces what is right.


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Assemble yourselves, and approach, and draw near together, you who have been saved among the Gentiles. They lack knowledge, who lift up the wood of their sculpture, and who petition a god unable to save.


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Announce it, and approach, and consult together. Who has caused this to be heard from the beginning, and who has foretold it from that time? Is it not I, the Lord? And is there some other god beside me? I am a just God who saves, and there is no one except me.


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All ends of the earth, be converted to me, and you will be saved. For I am God, and there is no other.


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Therefore, he will say, “In the Lord are my justices and my dominion.” They will go to him. And all who fight against him will be confounded.


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Bel has been broken. Nebo has been crushed. Their idols have been placed upon beasts and cattle, your grievous heavy burdens, even unto exhaustion.


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They have been melted down, or have been smashed together. They were not able to save the one who carried them, and their life will go into captivity.


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Listen to me, house of Jacob, all the remnant of the house of Israel, who are carried in my bosom, who were born from my womb.


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Even to your old age, I am the same. And even with your grey hairs, I will carry you. I have made you, and I will sustain you. I will carry you, and I will save you.


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You take gold from a bag, and you weigh silver on a scale, so as to hire a goldsmith to make a god. And they fall prostrate and adore.


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They carry him on their shoulders, supporting him, and they set him in his place. And he will stand still and will not move from his place. But even when they will cry out to him, he will not hear. He will not save them from tribulation.


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From the beginning, I announce the last things, and from the start, the things that have not yet been done, saying: My plan will stand firm, and my entire will shall be done.


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I call a bird from the east, and from a far away land, the man of my will. And I have spoken it, and I will carry it out. I have created, and I will act.


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I have brought my justice near. It will not be far away, and my salvation will not be delayed. I will grant salvation in Zion, and my glory in Israel.


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Descend, sit in the dust, O virgin daughter of Babylon! Sit on the ground. There is no throne for the daughter of the Chaldeans. For you shall no longer be called delicate and tender.


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Take a millstone and grind meal. Uncover your shame, bare your shoulder, reveal your legs, cross the streams.


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Your disgrace will be revealed, and your shame will be seen. I will seize vengeance, and no man will withstand me.


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Sit in silence, and enter into darkness, O daughter of the Chaldeans! For you shall no longer be called the noblewoman of kingdoms.


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I was angry with my people. I have polluted my inheritance, and I have given them into your hand. You have not shown mercy to them. You have greatly increased the burden of your yoke upon the elders.


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And you have said: “I will be a noblewoman forever.” You have not set these things upon your heart, and you have not remembered your end.


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And now, hear these things, you who are delicate and have confidence, who say in your heart: “I am, and there is no one greater than me. I will not sit as a widow, and I will not know barrenness.”


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These two things will suddenly overwhelm you in one day: barrenness and widowhood. All things shall overwhelm you, because of the multitude of your sorceries and because of the great cruelty of your enchantments.


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And you have trusted in your malice, and you have said: “There is no one who sees me.” Your wisdom and your knowledge, these have deceived you. And you have said in your heart: “I am, and beside me there is no other.”


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Evil will overwhelm you, and you will not notice its rising. And calamity will fall violently over you, and you will not be able to avert it. You will suddenly be overwhelmed by a misery such as you have never known.


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Stand with your incantations, and with the multitude of your sorceries, in which you have labored from your youth, as if somehow it might benefit you, or as if it were able to make you stronger.


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You have failed in the multitude of your plans! Let the seers stand and save you, those who were contemplating the stars, and figuring the months, so that from these they might announce to you the things to come.


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Behold, they have become like stubble. Fire has consumed them. They will not free themselves from the power of the flames. These are not coals by which they may be warmed, nor is this a fire which they may sit beside.


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So have all these things, in which you have labored, become to you. Your merchants from your youth, each one has erred in his own way. There is no one who can save you.


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Listen to these things, O house of Jacob, you who are called by the name of Israel, and who went forth from the waters of Judah. You swear by the name of the Lord and you call to mind the God of Israel, but not in truth, and not in justice.


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For they have been called from the holy city, and they have been founded upon the God of Israel. The Lord of hosts is his name.


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From that time, I announced the former things. They went forth from my mouth, and I have caused them to be heard. I wrought these things suddenly, and they were fulfilled.


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For I knew that you are stubborn, and that your neck is like an iron sinew, and that your forehead is like brass.


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From that time, I foretold to you. Before these things happened, I revealed them to you, lest you say: “My idols have accomplished these things, and my graven and molten images have commanded them.”


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See all the things that you have heard. But were you the ones who announced them? From that time, I caused you to hear about new things, and you do not know how these were preserved.


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They are created now, and not in that time. And even before today, you did not hear of them; otherwise, you might say, “Behold, I knew them.”


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You have neither heard, nor known, nor were your ears open in that time. For I knew that you would transgress greatly, and so I called you a transgressor from the womb.


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For the sake of my name, I will take the face of my fury far away. And for the sake of my praise, I will bridle you, lest you perish.


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For my sake, for my own sake, I will do it, so that I may not be blasphemed. For I will not give my glory to another.


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Also, my hand has founded the earth, and my right hand has measured the heavens. I will call them, and they will stand together.


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Gather together, all of you, and listen. Who among them has announced these things? The Lord has loved him; he will do his will with Babylon, and his arm is upon the Chaldeans.


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Draw near to me, and listen to this. From the beginning, I have not spoken in secret. From the time before it happened, I was there. And now, the Lord God has sent me, and his Spirit.


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Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: I am the Lord, your God, who teaches you beneficial things, who guides you in the way that you walk.


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If only you had paid attention to my commandments! Your peace would have been like a river, and your justice would have been like the waves of the sea,


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and your offspring would have been like the sand, and the stock from your loins would have been like its stones. His name would not have passed away, nor would it have been worn away before my face.


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Depart from Babylon! Flee from the Chaldeans! Announce it with a voice of exultation. Cause it to be heard, and carry it even to the ends of the earth. Say: “The Lord has redeemed his servant Jacob.”


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They did not thirst in the desert, when he led them out. He produced water from the rock for them. For he split the rock, and the waters flowed out.


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Pay attention, you islands, and listen closely, you far away peoples. The Lord has called me from the womb; from the womb of my mother, he has been mindful of my name.


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And he has appointed my mouth as a sharp sword. In the shadow of his hand, he has protected me. And he has appointed me as an elect arrow. In his quiver, he has hidden me.


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And I said: “I have labored toward emptiness. I have consumed my strength without purpose and in vain. Therefore, my judgment is with the Lord, and my work is with my God.”


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And now, says the Lord, who formed me from the womb as his servant, so that I may bring back Jacob to him, for Israel will not be gathered together, but I have been glorified in the eyes of the Lord and my God has become my strength,


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and so he has said: “It is a small thing that you should be my servant so as to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and so as to convert the dregs of Israel. Behold, I have offered you as a light for the Gentiles, so that you may be my salvation, even to the furthest regions of the earth.”


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Thus says the Lord, the Redeemer of Israel, his Holy One, to a contemptible soul, to an abominable nation, to the servant of lords: The kings will see, and the princes will rise up, and they will adore, because of the Lord. For he is faithful, and he is the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen you.


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Thus says the Lord: In a pleasing time, I have heeded you, and in the day of salvation, I have assisted you. And I have preserved you, and I have presented you as a covenant of the people, so that you would lift up the earth, and possess the scattered inheritances,


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so that you would say to those who are bound, “Go forth!” and to those who are in darkness, “Be released!” They will pasture along the roads, and their pastures will be in every open place.


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They will not hunger or thirst, nor will the heat of the sun beat down upon them. For the one who takes pity on them will rule them, and he will give them to drink from fountains of waters.


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Behold, some will come from far away, and behold, others from the north and from the sea, and still others from the land of the south.


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Give praise, O heavens! And exult, O earth! Let the mountains give praise with jubilation! For the Lord has consoled his people, and he will take pity on his poor ones.


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Can a woman forget her infant, so as not to take pity on the child of her womb? But even if she would forget, still I shall never forget you.


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Your builders have arrived. Those who would tear you down and destroy you, they will depart from you.


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Lift up your eyes all around, and see: all these have been gathered together; they have come to you. As I live, says the Lord, you shall be clothed with all these things, as if with an ornament. And like a bride, you shall wrap these things all around you.


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For your deserts, and your solitary places, and the land of your ruination will now be too narrow, because of all the inhabitants. And those who devoured you will be chased far away.


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Even the children of your barrenness will say in your ears: “This place is too narrow for me. Make me a spacious place in which to dwell.”


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And you will say in your heart: “Who has conceived them? I was barren and unable to give birth. I was taken away and held captive. And so, who has raised them? I was destitute and alone. And so, where have they been?”


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Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will lift up my hand to the Gentiles, and I will exalt my sign before the peoples. And they will carry your sons in their arms, and they will bear your daughters on their shoulders.


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And kings will be your caretakers, and queens will be your nursemaids. They will reverence you with their face to the ground, and they will lick the dust at your feet. And you will know that I am the Lord. For those who hope in him will not be confounded.


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For thus says the Lord: Certainly, even the captives will be taken away from the strong, even what has been taken by the powerful will be saved. And truly, I will judge those who have judged you, and I will save your children.


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And I will feed your enemies their own flesh. And they will be inebriated with their own blood, as with new wine. And all flesh will know that I am the Lord, who saves you, and your Redeemer, the Strong One of Jacob.


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Thus says the Lord: What is this bill of divorce for your mother, by which I have dismissed her? Or who is my creditor, to whom I have sold you? Behold, you were sold by your iniquities, and I have dismissed your mother for your wickedness.


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For I arrived, and there was no man. I called out, and there was no one who would hear. Has my hand been shortened and become small, so that I am unable to redeem? Or is there no power in me to deliver? Behold, at my rebuke, I will make the sea into a desert. I will turn rivers into dry land. The fish will rot for lack of water and will die of thirst.


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The Lord has given me a learned tongue, so that I would know how to uphold with a word, one who has weakened. He rises in the morning, he rises to my ear in the morning, so that I may heed him like a teacher.


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I have given my body to those who strike me, and my cheeks to those who plucked them. I have not averted my face from those who rebuked me and who spit on me.


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The Lord God is my helper. Therefore, I have not been confounded. Therefore, I have set my face like a very hard rock, and I know that I will not be confounded.


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He who justifies me is near. Who will speak against me? Let us stand together. Who is my adversary? Let him approach me.


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Behold, the Lord God is my helper. Who is the one who would condemn me? Behold, they will all be worn away like a garment; the moth will devour them.


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Who is there among you who fears the Lord? Who hears the voice of his servant? Who has walked in darkness, and there is no light in him? Let him hope in the name of the Lord, and let him lean upon his God.


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Behold, all you who kindle a fire, wrapped in flames: walk in the light of your fire and in the flames that you have kindled. This has been done to you by my hand. You will sleep in anguish.


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Listen to me, you who follow what is just and who seek the Lord. Pay attention to the rock from which you have been hewn, and to the walls of the pit from which you have been dug.


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Pay attention to Abraham, your father, and to Sarah, who bore you. For I called him alone, and I blessed him, and I multiplied him.


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Therefore, the Lord will console Zion, and he will console all its ruins. And he will turn her desert into a place of delights, and her wilderness into a garden of the Lord. Gladness and rejoicing will be found in her, thanksgiving and a voice of praise.


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Pay attention to me, my people, and listen to me, my tribes. For a law will go forth from me, and my judgment will rest as a light for the nations.


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My just one is near. My savior has gone forth. And my arms will judge the people. The islands will hope in me, and they will patiently wait for my arm.


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Lift up your eyes to heaven, and look down to the earth below. For the heavens will vanish like smoke, and the earth will be worn away like a garment, and its inhabitants will pass away in like manner. But my salvation will be forever, and my justice will not fail.


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Listen to me, you who know what is just, my people who have my law in their heart. Do not be afraid of disgrace among men, and do not dread their blasphemies.


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For the worm will consume them like a garment, and the moth will devour them like wool. But my salvation will be forever, and my justice will be from generation to generation.


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Rise up, Rise up! Clothe yourself in strength, O arm of the Lord! Rise up as in the days of antiquity, as in generations long past. Have you not struck the arrogant one and wounded the dragon?


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Have not you dried up the sea, the waters of the great abyss, and turned the depths of the sea into a road, so that the delivered could cross over it?


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And now, those who have been redeemed by the Lord will return. And they will arrive in Zion, praising. And everlasting rejoicing will be upon their heads. They will take hold of gladness and rejoicing. Anguish and mourning will flee away.


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It is I, I myself, who will console you. Who are you that you would be afraid of a mortal man, and of a son of man, who will wither like the grass?


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And have you forgotten the Lord, your Maker, who extended the heavens, and who founded the earth? And have you been in constant dread, all day long, at the face of his fury, of the one who afflicted you and who had prepared to destroy you? Where is the fury of the oppressor now?


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Advancing quickly, he will arrive to be revealed, and he will not kill unto utter destruction, nor will his bread fail.


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But I am the Lord, your God, who stirs up the sea, and who makes the waves swell. The Lord of hosts is my name.


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I have placed my words in your mouth, and I have protected you in the shadow of my hand, so that you might plant the heavens, and found the earth, and so that you might say to Zion, “You are my people.”


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Lift up, Lift up! Arise, O Jerusalem! You drank, from the hand of the Lord, the cup of his wrath. You drank, even to the bottom of the cup of deep sleep. And you were given to drink, all the way to the dregs.


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There is no one who can uphold her, out of all the sons whom she has conceived. And there is no one who would take her by the hand, out of all the sons whom she has raised.


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There are two things which have happened to you. Who will be saddened over you? There is devastation and destruction, and famine and sword. Who will console you?


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Your sons have been cast out. They have slept at the head of all the roads, and they have been ensnared like a gazelle. They have been filled by the indignation of the Lord, by the rebuke of your God.


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Thus says your Sovereign, the Lord, and your God, who will fight on behalf of his people: Behold, I have taken the cup of deep sleep from your hand. You shall no longer drink from the bottom of the cup of my indignation.


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And I will set it in the hand of those who have humiliated you, and who have said to your soul: “Bow down, so that we pass over.” And you placed your body on the ground, as a path for them to pass over.


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Rise up, Rise up! Clothe yourself in strength, O Zion! Put on the garments of your glory, O Jerusalem, the city of the Holy One! For the uncircumcised and the unclean will no longer pass through you.


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Shake yourself from the dust! Arise and sit up, O Jerusalem! Loose the chains from your neck, O captive daughter of Zion!


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For thus says the Lord God: My people descended into Egypt, in the beginning, in order to sojourn there. But the Assyrian oppressed them, without any cause at all.


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And now, what is left for me here, says the Lord? For my people have been taken away without cause. Their lords treat them unjustly, says the Lord. And my name is being continually blasphemed all day long.


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Because of this, my people will know my name, in that day. For it is I myself who is speaking. Behold, I am here.


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How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of the messenger and the preacher of peace! Announcing good and preaching peace, they are saying to Zion, “Your God will reign!”


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It is the voice of your watchmen. They have lifted up their voice. They will praise together. For they will see eye to eye, when the Lord converts Zion.


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Be glad and rejoice together, O deserts of Jerusalem! For the Lord has consoled his people. He has redeemed Jerusalem.


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The Lord has prepared his holy arm, in the sight of all the Gentiles. And all the ends of the earth will see the salvation of our God.


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Depart, depart, get out of here! Do not be willing to touch what is polluted. Go out from her midst! Be cleansed, you who bear the vessels of the Lord.


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For you will not go out in a tumult, nor will you take flight in a hurry. For the Lord will precede you, and the God of Israel will gather you.


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Just as they were stupefied over you, so will his countenance be without glory among men, and his appearance, among the sons of men.


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He will sprinkle many nations; kings will close their mouth because of him. And those to whom he was not described, have seen. And those who have not heard, have considered.


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And he will rise up like a tender plant in his sight, and like a root from the thirsty ground. There is no beautiful or stately appearance in him. For we looked upon him, and there was no aspect, such that we would desire him.


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He is despised and the least among men, a man of sorrows who knows infirmity. And his countenance was hidden and despised. Because of this, we did not esteem him.


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Truly, he has taken away our weaknesses, and he himself has carried our sorrows. And we thought of him as if he were a leper, or as if he had been struck by God and humiliated.


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But he himself was wounded because of our iniquities. He was bruised because of our wickedness. The discipline of our peace was upon him. And by his wounds, we are healed.


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We have all gone astray like sheep; each one has turned aside to his own way. And the Lord has placed all our iniquity upon him.


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He was offered up, because it was his own will. And he did not open his mouth. He will be led like a sheep to the slaughter. And he will be mute like a lamb before his shearer. For he will not open his mouth.


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He was lifted up from anguish and judgment. Who will describe his life? For he has been cut off from the land of the living. Because of the wickedness of my people, I have struck him down.


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And he will be given a place with the impious for his burial, and with the rich for his death, though he has done no iniquity, nor was deceit in his mouth.


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But it was the will of the Lord to crush him with infirmity. If he lays down his life because of sin, he will see offspring with long lives, and the will of the Lord will be directed by his hand.


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Because his soul has labored, he will see and be satisfied. By his knowledge, my just servant will himself justify many, and he himself will carry their iniquities.


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Therefore, I will allot to him a great number. And he will divide the spoils of the strong. For he has handed over his life to death, and he was reputed among criminals. And he has taken away the sins of many, and he has prayed for the transgressors.


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Give praise, you who are barren and unable to conceive. Sing praise and make a joyful noise, you who have not given birth. For many are the children of the desolate, more so than of her who has a husband, says the Lord.


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Enlarge the place of your tent and extend the skins of your tabernacles, unsparingly. Lengthen your cords, and strengthen your stakes.


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For you shall extend to the right and to the left. And your offspring shall inherit the nations, and you shall inhabit the desolate cities.


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Do not be afraid! For you will not be confounded, and you will not blush. And you will not be put to shame, because you shall forget the confusion of your youth, and you shall no longer remember the disgrace of your widowhood.


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For the One who made you will rule over you. The Lord of hosts is his name. And your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, will be called the God of all the earth.


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For the Lord has called you, like a woman forsaken and mourning in spirit, and like a wife rejected in her youth, said your God.


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In a moment of indignation, I have hidden my face from you, for a little while. But with everlasting mercy, I have taken pity on you, said your Redeemer, the Lord.


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For me, it is just as in the days of Noah, to whom I swore that I would no longer bring in the waters of Noah over the earth. Thus have I sworn not to be angry with you, and not to rebuke you.


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For the mountains will be moved, and the hills will tremble. But my mercy will not depart from you, and the covenant of my peace will not be shaken, said the Lord, who has compassion on you.


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O poor little ones, convulsed by the tempest, away from any consolation! Behold, I will set your stones in order, and I will lay your foundation with sapphires,


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and I will make your ramparts out of jasper, and your gates out of sculpted stones, and all your borders out of desirable stones.


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And you will be founded in justice. Depart far from oppression, for you will not be afraid. And depart from terror, for it will not approach you.


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Behold, I created the smith who fans the coals of the fire and produces an object by his work, and I have created the slayer who destroys.


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No object which has been formed to use against you will succeed. And every tongue that resists you in judgment, you shall judge. This is the inheritance of the servants of the Lord, and this is their justice with me, says the Lord.


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All you who thirst, come to the waters. And you who have no money: hurry, buy and eat. Approach, buy wine and milk, without money and without barter.


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Why do you spend money for what is not bread, and expend your labor for what does not satisfy? Listen very closely to me, and eat what is good, and then your soul will be delighted by a full measure.


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Incline your ear and draw near to me. Listen, and your soul will live. And I will make an everlasting covenant with you, by the faithful mercies of David.


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Behold, I have presented him as a witness to the people, as a commander and instructor to the nations.


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Behold, you will call to a nation that you did not know. And nations that did not know you will rush to you, because of the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel. For he has glorified you.


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Let the impious one abandon his way, and the iniquitous man his thoughts, and let him return to the Lord, and he will take pity on him, and to our God, for he is great in forgiveness.


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For just as the heavens are exalted above the earth, so also are my ways exalted above your ways, and my thoughts above your thoughts.


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And in the same manner as rain and snow descend from heaven, and no longer return there, but soak the earth, and water it, and cause it to bloom and to provide seed to the sower and bread to the hungry,


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so also will my word be, which will go forth from my mouth. It will not return to me empty, but it will accomplish whatever I will, and it will prosper in the tasks for which I sent it.


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For you will go forth rejoicing, and you will be led forward in peace. The mountains and the hills will sing praise before you, and all the trees of the countryside will clap their hands.


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In place of the shrub, the pine tree will arise, and in place of the nettle, the myrtle tree will grow. And the Lord will be named with an eternal sign, which will not be taken away.


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Thus says the Lord: Preserve judgment, and accomplish justice. For my salvation is close to its arrival, and my justice is close to being revealed.


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Blessed is the man who does this, and the son of man who holds to this, keeping the Sabbath and not profaning it, guarding his hands and not doing any evil.


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And let not the son of the new arrival, who adheres to the Lord, speak, saying, “The Lord will divide and separate me from his people.” And let not the eunuch say, “Behold, I am a dry tree.”


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For thus says the Lord to the eunuchs: They will keep my Sabbaths, and they will choose the things that I will, and they will hold to my covenant.


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I will give them a place in my house, within my walls, and a name better than sons and daughters. I will give them an everlasting name, which will never perish.


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And the sons of the new arrival, who adhere to the Lord so as to worship him and to love his name, shall be his servants: all who keep the Sabbath without profaning it, and who hold to my covenant.


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I will lead them to my holy mountain, and I will gladden them in my house of prayer. Their holocausts and their victims will be pleasing to me upon my altar. For my house will be called the house of prayer for all peoples.


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The Lord God, who gathers the dispersed of Israel, says: Even now, I will gather his congregation to him.


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His watchmen are all blind. They are all ignorant. They are mute dogs without the ability to bark, seeing empty things, sleeping and loving dreams.


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And these very imprudent dogs have never known satisfaction. The shepherds themselves do not know understanding. All have turned aside in their own way, each one to his own avarice, from the highest even to the least:


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“Come, let us take wine, and be filled by inebriation. And as it is today, so shall it be tomorrow and for a long time.”


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The just man perishes, and there is no one who acknowledges it in his heart; and men of mercy are taken away, for there is no one who understands. For the just man has been taken away before the face of malice.


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But come here, you sons of the prophetess, you offspring of an adulterous man and a fornicating woman.


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Whom are you mocking? Against whom have you opened your mouth wide and wagged your tongue? Are you not sons of wickedness, a lying offspring,


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who are being consoled by idols under every leafy tree, immolating little children at the torrents, under the high rocks?


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Your portion is in the currents of the torrent; this is your lot! And you yourselves have poured out libations to them; you have offered sacrifice. Should I not be angry over these things?


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Upon a high and lofty mountain, you have placed your bed, and you have ascended to that place to immolate victims.


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And behind the door, and beyond the post, you have set up your memorial. For you uncovered yourself next to me, and you received an adulterer. You widened your bed, and you formed a pact with them. You loved their bed with an open hand.


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And you have adorned yourself for the king with ointments, and you have increased your cosmetics. You have sent your representatives to distant places, and you have debased yourself all the way to Hell.


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You have been wearied by the multitude of your own ways. Yet you did not say, “I will cease.” You have found life by your own hand; because of this, you have not prayed.


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For whose sake have you been anxiously afraid, so that you would lie and not be mindful of me, nor consider me in your heart? For I am silent, and I am like someone who does not see, and so you have forgotten me.


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When you cry out, let your followers free you. But the wind will carry them all away; a breeze will take them up. But he who has faith in me will inherit the earth and will possess my holy mountain.


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And I will say: “Make way! Grant passage! Move to the side of the path! Take the obstacles out of the way of my people!”


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For this is said by the Most High, the Sublime One, who dwells in eternity. And his name is Holy, for he dwells in the exalted and holy place, and he acts with a restrained and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite.


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For I will not contend unceasingly, and I will not be angry to the end. For I will exhale my breath, and the Spirit will go forth from my face.


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Because of the iniquity of his avarice, I was angry, and I struck him down. I concealed my face from you, and I was angry. And he went astray by wandering in his heart.


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I saw his ways, and I healed him, and I led him back again, and I restored consolations to him and to those who mourn for him.


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I created the fruit of the lips: peace, peace to him who is far away, and peace to him who is near, said the Lord, and I healed him.


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But the impious are like the raging sea, which is not able to be quieted, and its waves stir up dirt and mud.


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Cry out! Cease not! Exalt your voice like a trumpet, and announce to my people their wicked acts, and to the house of Jacob their sins.


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For they also seek me, from day to day, and they are willing to know my ways, like a nation which has done justice and has not abandoned the judgment of their God. They petition me for judgments of justice. They are willing to draw near to God.


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“Why have we fasted, and you have not taken notice? Why have we humbled our souls, and you have not acknowledged it?” Behold, in the day of your fasting, your own will is found, and you petition for payment from all your debtors.


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Behold, you fast with strife and contention, and you strike with the fist impiously. Do not choose to fast as you have done even to this day. Then your outcry will be heard on high.


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Is this a fast such as I have chosen: for a man to afflict his soul for a day, to contort his head in a circle, and to spread sackcloth and ashes? Should you call this a fast and a day acceptable to the Lord?


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Is not this, instead, the kind of fast that I have chosen? Release the constraints of impiety; relieve the burdens that oppress; freely forgive those who are broken; and break apart every burden.


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Break your bread with the hungry, and lead the destitute and the homeless into your house. When you see someone naked, cover him, and do not despise your own flesh.


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Then your light will break forth like the morning, and your health will improve quickly, and your justice will go before your face, and the glory of the Lord will gather you up.


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Then you will call, and the Lord will heed; you will cry out, and he will say, “Here I am,” if you take away the chains from your midst, and cease to point your finger and to speak what is not beneficial.


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When you pour out your life for the hungry, and you satisfy the afflicted soul, then your light will rise up in darkness, and your darkness will be like the midday.


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And the Lord will give you rest continually, and he will fill your soul with splendor, and he will free your bones, and you will be like a watered garden and like a fountain of water whose waters will not fail.


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And places that have been desolate for ages will be built up by you. You will raise a foundation for generation after generation. And you will be called the repairer of hedges, who turns the roadways into quiet places.


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If you restrain your foot on the Sabbath, from doing your own will on my holy day, and if you call the Sabbath delightful, and the Holy of the Lord glorious, and if you glorify him, while you do not act according to your own ways, and your own will is not found, not even to speak a word,


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then you will find delight in the Lord, and I will take you up, above the heights of the earth, and I will nourish you with the inheritance of Jacob, your father. For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.


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Behold, the hand of the Lord has not been shortened, so that it cannot save, and his ear has not been blocked, so that it cannot hear.


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But your iniquities have made a division between you and your God, and your sins have concealed his face from you, so that he would not hear.


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For your hands have been polluted by blood, and your fingers by iniquity. Your lips have spoken lies, and your tongue utters iniquity.


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There is no one who calls for justice, and there is no one who judges truly. For they trust in nothing, and they speak emptiness. They have conceived hardship, and they have given birth to iniquity.


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They have ruptured the eggs of asps, and they have woven the webs of spiders. Whoever will eat of their eggs will die. For what has been incubated will hatch into a king snake.


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Their weavings will not be for clothing, nor will they cover themselves with their handiwork. Their works are useless things, and the work of iniquity is in their hands.


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Their feet run to evil, and they rush to shed innocent blood. Their thoughts are useless thoughts; devastation and destruction are in their ways.


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They have not known the way of peace, and there is no judgment in their steps. Their paths have become crooked for them. Anyone who treads in them knows no peace.


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Because of this, judgment is far from us, and justice will not take hold of us. We waited for light, and behold, darkness; we waited for brightness, and we walked in darkness.


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We groped for the wall, like one who is blind, and we felt our way, like one without eyes. We stumbled at midday, as if in darkness; and in darkness, as if in death.


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We will all roar like bears, and we will sigh like despondent doves. We hoped for judgment, and there is none; for salvation, and it is far from us.


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For our iniquities have been multiplied in your sight, and our sins have answered us. For our wickedness is with us, and we have acknowledged our iniquities:


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sinning and lying against the Lord. And we have turned away, not so as to go after our God, and so that we were speaking calumny and transgression. We have conceived, and spoken from the heart, words of falsehood.


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And judgment has been turned backwards, and justice has stood far away. For truth has fallen down in the street, and fairness was not able to enter.


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And the truth has gone into oblivion. And he who withdraws from evil endures plunder. And the Lord saw this, and it seemed evil in his eyes. For there is no judgment.


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And he saw that there was no good man. And he was astonished that there was no one to meet him. And his own arm brought salvation to him, and his own justice strengthened him.


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He clothed himself with justice as with a breastplate, and with a helmet of salvation upon his head. He put on the vestments of vengeance, and he was covered with zeal as with a cloak.


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This was for vindication, as a repayment of indignation to his adversaries, and as a sudden reversal for his enemies. He will repay the islands in their turn.


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And those from the west will fear the name of the Lord, and those from the rising of the sun will fear his glory, when he arrives like a violent river, which the Spirit of the Lord urges on.


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And the Redeemer will arrive in Zion, and to those who return from the iniquity within Jacob, says the Lord.


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This is my pact with them, says the Lord. My Spirit is within you, and my words, which I have put in your mouth, will not withdraw from your mouth, nor from the mouth of your offspring, nor from the mouth of your offspring’s offspring, says the Lord, from this moment, and even forever.


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Rise up to be illuminated, O Jerusalem! For your light has arrived, and the glory of the Lord has risen over you.


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For behold, darkness will cover the earth, and thick darkness will cover the peoples. Then the Lord will rise above you, and his glory will be seen in you.


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Lift up your eyes all around and see! All these have been gathered together; they have arrived before you. Your sons will arrive from far away, and your daughters will rise up from your side.


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Then you will see, and you will overflow, and your heart will be amazed and expanded. When the multitude of the sea will have been converted to you, the strength of the nations will approach you.


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A multitude of camels will inundate you: the dromedaries from Midian and Ephah. All those from Sheba will arrive, carrying gold and frankincense, and announcing praise to the Lord.


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All the flocks of Kedar will be gathered together before you; the rams of Nebaioth will minister to you. They will be offered upon my pleasing altar, and I will glorify the house of my majesty.


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For the islands await me, and the ships of the sea in the beginning, so that I may lead your sons from far away, their silver and their gold with them, to the name of the Lord your God and to the Holy One of Israel. For he has glorified you.


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And the sons of sojourners will build up your walls, and their kings will minister to you. For in my wrath, I have struck you. And in my reconciliation, I have taken pity on you.


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And your gates will be open continually. They will not be closed day or night, so that the strength of the nations may be brought before you, and their kings may be lead in.


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For the nation and the kingdom that will not serve you will perish. And the Gentiles will be devastated by solitude.


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The glory of Lebanon will arrive before you, the fir tree and the box tree and the pine tree together, to adorn the place of my sanctification. And I will glorify the place of my feet.


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And the sons of those who humiliate you will approach and will bow down before you. And all who detract you will reverence the path of your feet. And they will call you the City of the Lord, the Zion of the Holy One of Israel.


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For though you were forsaken, and held in hatred, and there was no one who would pass near you, I will establish you as an everlasting glory, as a gladness from generation to generation.


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And you will drink the milk of the Gentiles, and you will be nursed at the breasts of kings, and you will know that I am the Lord, your Saviour and your Redeemer, the Strong One of Jacob.


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In exchange for brass, I will bring gold; and in exchange for iron, I will bring silver; and for wood, brass; and for stones, iron. And I will make your visitation into peace, and your leaders into justice.


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Iniquity will no longer be heard in your land, nor devastation and destruction in your borders. And salvation will occupy your walls, and praise will occupy your gates.


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The sun will no longer be your light by day, nor will the brightness of the moon illuminate you. Instead, the Lord will be an everlasting light for you, and your God will be your glory.


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Your sun will no longer set, and your moon will not diminish. For the Lord will be an everlasting light for you, and the days of your mourning will be completed.


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And your people will all be just. They will inherit the earth in perpetuity, the seedling of my planting, the work of my hand, so as to glorify me.


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The least will become a thousand, and a little one will become a very strong nation. I, the Lord, will accomplish this, suddenly, in its time.


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The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, for the Lord has anointed me. He has sent me to bring good news to the meek, so as to heal the contrite of heart, to preach leniency to captives and release to the confined,


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and so to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord and the day of vindication of our God: to console all who are mourning,


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to take up the mourners of Zion and to give them a crown in place of ashes, an oil of joy in place of mourning, a cloak of praise in place of a spirit of grief. And there, they shall be called the strong ones of justice, the planting of the Lord, unto glorification.


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And they will rebuild the deserted places of past ages, and they will raise up the ruins of antiquity, and they will repair the desolate cities, which had been dissipated for generation after generation.


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And foreigners will stand up and will pasture your flocks. And the sons of sojourners will be your farmers and the workers of your vineyards.


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But you yourselves will be called the priests of the Lord. It will be said to you, “You are the ministers of our God.” You will eat from the strength of the Gentiles, and you will pride yourself on their glory.


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Instead of your double confusion and shame, they will praise their portion. Because of this, they will possess double in their land. Everlasting joy will be for them.


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For I am the Lord, who loves judgment and who holds hatred for robbery within a burnt offering. And I will turn their work into truth, and I will forge a perpetual covenant with them.


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And they will know their offspring among the nations, and their progeny in the midst of the peoples. All who see them will recognize them: that these are the offspring whom the Lord has blessed.


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I will rejoice greatly in the Lord, and my soul will exult in my God. For he has clothed me with the vestments of salvation, and he has wrapped me in the clothing of justice, like a groom arrayed with a crown, and like a bride adorned with her jewels.


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For as the earth brings forth its seedlings and the garden produces its seeds, so will the Lord God bring forth justice and praise in the sight of all the nations.


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For the sake of Zion, I will not be silent, and for the sake of Jerusalem, I will not rest, until her Just One advances in splendor, and her Savior is kindled like a lamp.


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And the Gentiles will see your Just One, and all the kings will see your Renown One. And you shall be called by a new name, which the mouth of the Lord will choose.


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And you shall be a crown of glory in the hand of the Lord, and a royal diadem in the hand of your God.


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You will no longer called Forsaken. And your land will no longer be called Desolate. Instead, you shall be called My Will within it, and your land shall be called Inhabited. For the Lord has been well pleased with you, and your land will be inhabited.


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For the young man will live with the virgin, and your children will live with you. And the groom will rejoice over the bride, and your God will rejoice over you.


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Upon your walls, O Jerusalem, I have stationed watchmen all day and all night unceasingly; they will not be silent. You who are mindful of the Lord, you should not be silent,


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and you should not grant silence to him, until he makes firm and establishes Jerusalem as a praise upon the earth.


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The Lord has sworn with his right hand and with the arm of his strength: “Certainly, I will no longer permit your grain to be the food of your enemies. And the sons of foreigners will not drink your wine, for which you have labored.”


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For those who gather it will eat it, and they will praise the Lord. And those who bring it together will drink it in my holy courts.


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Pass through, pass through the gates! Prepare a way for the people! Make the road level, remove the stones, and lift up a sign for the people!


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Behold, the Lord has caused it to be heard to the ends of the earth. Tell the daughter of Zion: “Behold, your Saviour approaches! Behold, his reward is with him, and his work before him.”


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And they will call them: The holy people, the redeemed of the Lord. Then you will be called: A city sought, and not forsaken.


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Who is this, who arrives from Edom with dyed garments from Bozrah? This is the Handsome One in his robe, advancing by the fullness of his strength. It is I, the Speaker of Justice, and I am the Fighter for Salvation.


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So then, why is your garment red, and why are your vestments like the ones of those who tread the winepress?


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I have trod the winepress alone. And among the nations, there is no man beside me. I have trampled on them in my fury, and I have tread them down in my wrath. And so, their blood has been sprinkled on my vestments, and I have stained all my garments.


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I gazed around, and there was no one to assist. I sought, and there was no one who would help. And so, my own arm has saved for me, and my own wrath itself has assisted me.


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And I have trampled the peoples in my fury, and I have inebriated them with my indignation, and I have torn down their strength to the ground.


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I will remember the compassion of the Lord, the praise of the Lord over all that the Lord has bestowed on us, and over the multitude of his good things for the house of Israel, which he has granted to them according to his leniency, and according to the multitude of his mercies.


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And he said: “Yet truly, these are my people, sons who have not been disowned.” And he became their Savior.


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Throughout all their tribulation, he was not troubled, for the Angel of his presence saved them. With his love, and by his leniency, he has redeemed them, and he has carried them and lifted them up, throughout all the days of the ages.


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But they themselves provoked to wrath and afflicted his Holy Spirit, and he was turned to be for them like an enemy, and he himself went to war against them.


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And he remembered the days of ancient times, the days of Moses and his people. Where is he who led them out of the sea, with the shepherds of his flock? Where is he who placed his Holy Spirit in their midst?


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He led Moses by the right hand, with the arm of his majesty. He split the waters before them, in order to make an everlasting name for himself.


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Like an animal who descends to an open field, the Spirit of the Lord was their guide. Thus did you lead your people, in order to make a glorious name for yourself.


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Gaze down from heaven, and behold from your holy habitation and from your glory. Where is your zeal, and your strength, the fullness of your heart and of your compassion? They have held themselves back from me.


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For you are our Father, and Abraham has not known us, and Israel has been ignorant of us. You are our Father, O Lord our Redeemer. Your name is beyond all ages.


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Why have you allowed us to stray from your ways, O Lord? Why have you hardened our heart, so that we do not fear you? Return, for the sake of your servants, the tribes of your inheritance.


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They have possessed your holy people as if it were nothing. Our enemies have trampled your sanctuary.


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We have become as we were in the beginning, when you did not rule over us, and when we were not called by your name.


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I wish that you would rend the heavens, and then descend! The mountains would flow away before your face.


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They would melt, as if thoroughly burned by fire. The waters would burn with fire, so that your name might be made known to your enemies, so that the nations would be stirred up before your face.


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When you will perform miracles, we will not be able to withstand them. You descended, and the mountains flowed away before your presence.


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From ages past, they have not heard it, and they have not perceived it with the ears. Apart from you, O God, the eye has not seen what you have prepared for those who await you.


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You have met with those who rejoice in doing justice. By your ways, they will remember you. Behold, you have been angry, for we have sinned. In this, we have continued, but we will be saved.


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And we have all become like the unclean. And all our justices are like a rag of menstruation. And we have all fallen away, like a leaf. And our iniquities have carried us away, like the wind.


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There is no one who calls upon your name, who rises up and holds fast to you. You have concealed your face from us, and you have crushed us with the hand of our own iniquity.


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And now, O Lord, you are our Father, yet truly, we are clay. And you are our Maker, and we are all the works of your hands.


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Do not be so angry, O Lord, and no longer call to mind our iniquity. Behold, consider that we are all your people.


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The house of our sanctification and of our glory, where our fathers praised you, has been completely consumed by fire, and all our admirable things have been turned into ruins.


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Should you restrain yourself, O Lord, concerning these things? Should you remain silent, and afflict us vehemently?


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Those who before were not asking for me have sought me. Those who have not sought me have found me. I said, “Behold, it is I! Behold, it is I!” to a nation which was not invoking my name.


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I have extended my hands all day long to an unbelieving people, who advance along a way that is not good, following their own thoughts,


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to a people who provoke me to anger before my face continually, who immolate in the gardens, and who sacrifice upon the bricks.


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They live in sepulchers, and they sleep in the shrines of idols. They eat the flesh of swine, and a profane elixir is in their vessels.


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They say: “Depart from me! Do not approach me, for you are unclean!” Such as these will be the smoke in my fury, a fire burning all day long.


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Behold, it has been written in my sight; I will not be silent. Instead, I will render retribution into their sinews.


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Your iniquities are joined with the iniquities of your fathers, says the Lord. For they have sacrificed upon the mountains, and they have offended me upon the hills. And so, I will measure back to them, from their first work, into their sinews.


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Thus says the Lord: In the same way as it is said about a grain found in a cluster, “Do not destroy it, because it is a blessing,” so will I act for the sake of my servants, so that I may not destroy the whole.


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And I will lead forth an offspring from Jacob, and a possessor of my mountains from Judah. And my elect shall inherit it, and my servants shall live there.


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And the open plains will become sheepfolds for the flocks, and the valley of Achor will become a domicile for the herds, for my people who have sought me.


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And you who have forsaken the Lord, who have forgotten my holy mountain, who set a table for Fortune, and who offer libations concerning her:


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I will number you with the sword, and you will all fall by slaughter. For I called and you did not respond; I spoke, and you did not listen. And you did what is evil in my eyes; and what I did not will, you have chosen.


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Because of this, thus says the Lord God: Behold, my servants will eat, and you will be hungry. Behold, my servants will drink, and you will be thirsty.


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Behold, my servants will rejoice, and you will be confounded. Behold, my servants will give praise in exultation of heart, and you will cry out in sorrow of heart, and you will wail in contrition of spirit.


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And you will leave behind your name to my elect as a curse. And the Lord God will put you to death, and he will call his servants by another name.


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By that name, whoever is blessed on earth, will be blessed in God. Amen! And whoever swears on earth, will swear by God. Amen! For the past anguishes have been delivered into oblivion, and they have been hidden from my eyes.


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For behold, I create the new heavens and the new earth. And the former things will not be in memory and will not enter into the heart.


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But you will be glad and exult, even forever, in these things that I create. For behold, I create Jerusalem as an exultation, and its people as a joy.


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And I will exult in Jerusalem, and I will rejoice in my people. And neither a voice of weeping, nor a voice of outcry, will be heard in her anymore.


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There will no longer be an infant of only a few days there, nor an elder who does not complete his days. For a mere child dies at a hundred years of age, and a sinner of a hundred years will be accursed.


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And they will build houses, and will inhabit them. And they will plant vineyards, and will eat their fruits.


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They will not build, so that another may inhabit. They will not plant, so that another may eat. For according to the days of a tree, so will be the days of my people. And the works of their hands will be long-standing.


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My elect will not labor in vain, and they will not bring forth in disorder. For they are the offspring of the blessed of the Lord, and their posterity are with them.


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And this shall be: before they call out, I will perceive; while they are still speaking, I will hear.


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The wolf and the lamb will pasture together. The lion and the ox will eat hay. And dust will be the food of the serpent. They will not harm, and they will not kill, on all my holy mountain, says the Lord.


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Thus says the Lord: Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. What is this house that you would build for me? And what is this place of my rest?


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My hand has made all these things, and all these things have been made, says the Lord. But upon whom will I look with favor, except upon a poor little one, who is contrite in spirit, and who trembles at my words?


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Whoever immolates an ox, it is as if he slaughters a man. Whoever sacrifices a sheep, it is as if he is smashing the head of a dog. Whoever offers an oblation, it is as if he is offering swine’s blood. Whoever makes remembrance with incense, it is as if he is blessing an idol. All these things, they have chosen according to their own ways, and their soul has taken delight in their own abominations.


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Therefore, I also will choose their illusions, and I will lead over them the things that they feared. For I called, and there was no one who would respond. I have spoken, and they have not listened. And they have done evil in my eyes; and what I did not will, they have chosen.


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Listen to the word of the Lord, you who tremble at his word. Your brothers, who hate you and who cast you out because of my name, have said: “Let the Lord be glorified, and we will see by your rejoicing.” But they themselves will be confounded.


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A voice of the people from the city! A voice from the temple! The voice of the Lord repaying retribution to his enemies!


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Before she was in labor, she gave birth. Before her time arrived for delivery, she gave birth to a male child.


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Who has ever heard of such a thing? And who has seen anything like this? Will the earth give birth in one day? Or will a nation be born all at once? For Zion has been in labor, and she has given birth to her sons.


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Will I, who causes others to give birth, not also give birth myself, says the Lord? Will I, who bestows generation upon others, be barren myself, says the Lord your God?


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Rejoice with Jerusalem, and exult in her, all you who love her! Rejoice greatly with her, all you who mourn over her!


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So may you nurse and be filled, from the breasts of her consolations. So may you receive milk and overflow with delights, from every portion of her glory.


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For thus says the Lord: Behold, I will turn a river of peace toward her, with an inundating torrent: the glory of the Gentiles, from which you will nurse. You will be carried at the breasts, and they will caress you upon the knees.


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In the manner of one whom a mother caresses, so will I console you. And you will be consoled in Jerusalem.


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You will see, and your heart will be glad, and your bones will flourish like a plant, and the hand of the Lord will be known to his servants, and he will be angry with his enemies.


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For behold, the Lord will arrive with fire, and his four-horse chariots will be like a whirlwind: to render his wrath with indignation, and his rebuke with flames of fire.


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For the Lord will divide with fire, and with his sword among all flesh, and those slain by the Lord will be many.


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Those who were sanctified, who thought themselves to be clean in the gardens behind the inner gate, who were eating swine’s flesh, and the abomination, and the mouse: they will be consumed all at once, says the Lord.


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But I know their works and their thoughts. I am arriving, so that I may gather them together with all nations and languages. And they will approach, and they will see my glory.


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And I will set a sign among them. And I will send some of those who will have been saved to the Gentiles in the sea, to Africa, and to those who draw the bow in Lydia, to Italy and Greece, to islands far away, to those who have not heard of me, and to those who have not seen my glory. And they will announce my glory to the Gentiles.


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And they will lead all of your brothers from all of the Gentiles as a gift to the Lord, on horses, and in four-horse chariots, and on stretchers, and on mules, and in coaches, to my holy mountain Jerusalem, says the Lord, in the same manner that the sons of Israel would carry an offering in a pure vessel into the house of the Lord.


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For in like manner as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will cause to stand before me, says the Lord, so will your offspring and your name stand.


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And there will be month after month, and Sabbath after Sabbath. And all flesh will approach, so as to adore before my face, says the Lord.


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And they will go out, and they will view the carcasses of the men who have transgressed against me. Their worm will not die, and their fire will not be extinguished. And they will be a sight to all flesh even unto revulsion.


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The words of Jeremiah, the son of Hilkiah of the priests who were in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin.


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The word of the Lord, which came to him in the days of Josiah, the son of Amon, king of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his reign,


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and which came to him in the days of Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, king of Judah, even until the completion of the eleventh year of Zedekiah, the son of Josiah, king of Judah, even until the transmigration of Jerusalem in the fifth month.


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“Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you. And before you went forth from the womb, I sanctified you. And I made you a prophet to the nations.”


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And the Lord said to me: “Do not choose to say, ‘I am a boy.’ For you shall go forth to everyone to whom I will send you. And you shall speak all that I will command you.


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You should not be afraid before their face. For I am with you, so that I may deliver you,” says the Lord.


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And the Lord put forth his hand, and he touched my mouth. And the Lord said to me: “Behold, I have placed my words in your mouth.


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Behold, today I have appointed you over nations and over kingdoms, so that you may root up, and pull down, and destroy, and scatter, and so that you may build and plant.”


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And the word of the Lord came to me, saying, “What do you see, Jeremiah?” And I said, “I see a staff, keeping watch.”


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And the Lord said to me: “You have seen well. For I will keep watch over my word, so that I may accomplish it.”


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And the word of the Lord came to me a second time, saying, “What do you see?” And I said, “I see a cooking pot upon a fire, and its face is before the face of the north.”


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And the Lord said to me: “From the north, an evil will spread over all the inhabitants of the earth.


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For behold, I will call together all the close associates of the kingdoms of the north, says the Lord. And they will arrive, and each one of them will place his throne at the entrance to the gates of Jerusalem, and over all its surrounding walls, and over all the cities of Judah.


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And I will speak my judgments with them, concerning all the wickedness of those who have forsaken me, and who have offered libations to strange gods, and who have adored the work of their own hands.


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Therefore, you should gird your waist, and rise up, and speak to them everything that I instruct you. You should not have dread before their face. For I will cause you to be unafraid of their countenance.


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For certainly, this day, I have made you like a fortified city, and an iron pillar, and a brass wall, over all the land, to the kings of Judah, to its leaders, and to the priests, and to the people of the land.


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And they will make war against you, but they will not prevail. For I am with you, says the Lord, so that I may free you.”


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“Go, and cry out to the ears of Jerusalem, saying: Thus says the Lord: I have remembered you, taking pity on your youth and on the charity of your betrothal, when you followed me into the desert, into a land which is not sown.


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Israel is holy to the Lord, the first of his fruits. All those who devour him commit an offense. Evils will overwhelm them, says the Lord.”


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Thus says the Lord: “What iniquity have your fathers found in me, that they would draw far away from me, and would walk after emptiness, and would become empty?


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And they have not said: ‘Where is the Lord, who caused us to ascend from the land of Egypt; who led us through the desert, through an uninhabited and impassable land, through a land of drought and of the image of death, through a land in which no one walked and in which no man lived?’


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And I led you into the land of Carmel, so that you would eat from its fruit and from its excellence. And having entered it, you defiled my land, and you turned my inheritance into an abomination.


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The priests have not sad: ‘Where is the Lord?’ And those who held the law did not know me. And the pastors betrayed me. And the prophets prophesied in Baal and followed idols.


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Because of this, I will still contend in judgment against you, says the Lord, and I will dispute with your sons.


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Cross over to the isles of Kittim, and gaze. And send to Kedar, and consider diligently. And see if anything like this has ever been done.


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See if a nation has ever changed their gods, though certainly those are not gods. Yet truly, my people have exchanged their glory for an idol.


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For my people have done two evils. They have forsaken me, the Fountain of living water, and they have dug for themselves cisterns, broken cisterns that are unable to hold water.


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The lions have roared over him, and they have uttered their voice. They have set his land in solitude; his cities have been burned up, and there is no one who lives in them.


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Has this not been done to you because you abandoned the Lord your God, in that time when he was leading you by the way?


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And now what do you want from the way of Egypt, but to drink their turbid water? And what do you want from the way of the Assyrians, but to drink the water of their river?


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Your own malice will reprove you, and your own apostasy will rebuke you! But know and perceive this: it is an evil and bitter thing for you to forsake the Lord your God, and to be without my fear within you, says the Lord, the God of hosts.


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From ancient times, you have broken my yoke; you have torn apart my bonds, and you have said, ‘I will not serve.’ For on every high hill, and under every leafy tree, you have been debased, O harlot.


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Yet I planted you as an elect vineyard, with only true seed. Then how have you been turned away from me, toward that which is depraved, O strange vineyard?


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Even if you wash yourself with soap, and increase your use of herbal soaps, you are still stained by your iniquity in my sight, says the Lord God.


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How can you say: ‘I have not been polluted. I have not walked after Baal?’ Consider your ways in the steep valley. Acknowledge what you have done, so that you may be like a swift runner, following his course.


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A wild donkey accustomed to solitude, out of the desire in his soul, caught the scent of his lover. Now nothing will turn him away from her. All those who seek her will not cease. But they will find her in her menstruation.


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You should keep your foot from being naked, and your throat from being thirsty. But you have said: ‘I have lost hope. I will not do it. For certainly, I have loved strangers, and I will walk after them.’


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In the same way that a thief is confounded when he has been apprehended, so the house of Israel has been confounded, they and their kings, their leaders and priests and prophets.


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For they say to a piece of wood, ‘You are my father,’ and to a stone, ‘You have conceived me.’ They have turned their back to me, and not their face. But in the time of their affliction, they will say: ‘Rise up and deliver us.’


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Where are your gods that you made for yourselves? Let them rise up and deliver you in the time of your affliction. For certainly, your gods were like the number of your cities, O Judah.


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I have struck your children to no effect; they have not accepted discipline. Your own sword has devoured your prophets. Your generation is like a raging lion.


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Consider the word of the Lord. Have I become like a wilderness to Israel, or like a land late to bear fruit? Then why have my people said, ‘We are withdrawing; we will no longer approach you’?


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Can a virgin forget her ornament, or a bride the covering across her breast? Yet truly, my people have forgotten me, for innumerable days.


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Why are you striving to claim that your way is good, as if to seek my love, when all the while you are also displaying your malice by your own way,


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and in your armpits there is found the blood of poor and innocent souls? I have found them, not in ditches, but everywhere that I mentioned previously.


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And you have said: ‘I am innocent and without sin. And because of this, let your fury be turned away from me.’ Behold, I will contend with you in judgment, because you have said: ‘I have not sinned.’


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How exceedingly vile you have become, repeating your ways again and again! And so, you will be ashamed of Egypt, just as you were ashamed of Assur.


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For you will also depart from that place, and your hand will be upon your head. For the Lord has crushed your confidence, and you will have nothing prosperous by it.”


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“It is commonly said: ‘If a man has divorced his wife, and she departs from him, she will marry another man.’ So why would he return to her again? Is not that woman polluted and defiled? But you have fornicated yourself with many lovers. Even so, return to me, says the Lord, and I will accept you.


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Lift your eyes straight up, and see where you did not debase yourself. You were sitting in the roadways, waiting for them, like a robber in the wilderness. And you have polluted the land by your fornications and by your wickedness.


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For this reason, the rain showers were withheld, and there were no late season rains. You made your face like that of a promiscuous woman; you were not willing to blush.


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Therefore, at least from this moment on, call out to me: ‘You are my father, the guide of my virginity.’


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Why should you be angry unceasingly? And will you continue in this to the end? Behold, you have spoken and done evil, for you were able to do so.”


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And, in the days of king Josiah, the Lord said to me: “Have you not seen what the apostate Israel has done? She has brought herself up to every lofty mountain, and she has lain down under every leafy tree, and she has committed fornication there.


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And when she had done all these things, I said: ‘Return to me.’ But she did not return. And her deceitful sister Judah saw this:


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that because the apostate Israel had committed adultery, I had dismissed her and had given her a bill of divorce. Yet her deceitful sister Judah was not afraid. But she, too, went and committed fornication herself.


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And by the act of her fornication, she defiled the land. For she committed adultery with that which is stone and wood.


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And after all these things, her deceitful sister Judah has not returned to me with her whole heart, but with lies, says the Lord.”


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And the Lord said to me: “The apostate Israel has justified her own soul by comparing herself to the deceitful Judah.


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Go, and proclaim these words toward the north, and you shall say: Return, O apostate Israel, says the Lord. For I will not avert my face from you. For I am holy, says the Lord, and I will not be angry forever.


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So then, truly acknowledge your iniquity, that you have betrayed the Lord your God, and that you have spread your ways to strangers, under every leafy tree, and that you have not listened to my voice, says the Lord.


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Convert, O rebellious sons, says the Lord. For I am your leader. And so, I will take you, one from a city, and two from a family, and I will lead you into Zion.


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And I will give you pastors according to my own heart. And they will feed you with knowledge and doctrine.


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And when you have been multiplied and increased in the land in those days, says the Lord, they will no longer say: ‘The Ark of the covenant of the Lord!’ And it will not enter into the heart, and they will not call it to mind. It will neither be visited, nor made use of, any longer.


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In that time, Jerusalem will be called: ‘The Throne of the Lord.’ And all the nations will be gathered to it, in the name of the Lord, in Jerusalem. And they will not walk after the depravity of their own most wicked heart.


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In those days, the house of Judah will go to the house of Israel, and they will come from the land of the north, at the same time, to the land that I gave to your fathers.


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But I said: How shall I place you among the sons, and distribute to you a desirable land, the preeminent inheritance of the host of the Gentiles? And I said: You will call me Father, and you will not cease to walk after me.


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But, in the same way that a woman spurns her lover, so also has the house of Israel spurned me, says the Lord.”


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A voice has been heard in the highways, the weeping and wailing of the sons of Israel. For they have made their own ways sinful; they have forgotten the Lord their God.


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“Convert, O rebellious sons! And I will heal your rebelliousness.” “Behold, we are returning to you. For you are the Lord our God!


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Truly, the hills were liars, with the multitude of the mountains. Truly, the salvation of Israel is in the Lord our God.


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Confusion has devoured the labor of our fathers, from our youth, with their flocks and their herds, with their sons and their daughters.


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We will sleep in our confusion, and our disgrace will cover us. For we have sinned against the Lord our God: we and our fathers, from our youth, even to this day. And we have not listened to the voice of the Lord our God.”


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“O Israel, if you would return, says the Lord, then be converted to me. If you remove your offense from before my face, then you will not be shaken.


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And you will swear, ‘As the Lord lives,’ in truth and in judgment and in justice.” And the Gentiles will bless him, and they will praise him.


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For thus says the Lord to the men of Judah and of Jerusalem: “Break new ground, and do not choose to sow upon thorns.


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Be circumcised to the Lord, and take away the foreskins from your hearts, O men of Judah, O inhabitants of Jerusalem. Otherwise my indignation may burst forth and flare up like a fire. And then there will be no one who can extinguish it, because of the wickedness of your thoughts.


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Declare it in Judah, and make it known in Jerusalem! Speak out and sound the trumpet in the land! Cry out strongly and say: ‘Gather yourselves! And let us go forth to fortified cities!’


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Lift up a standard in Zion. Be strengthened! Do not choose to stand still. For I am bringing an evil from the north, with great destruction.


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The lion has ascended from his den, and the pillager of the nations has lifted himself up. He has gone forth from his place, so that he may set your land in desolation. Your cities will be laid waste, remaining without an inhabitant.


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Concerning this, wrap yourselves in haircloth, mourn and wail: ‘For the wrath of the fury of the Lord has not been turned away from us.’


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And this shall be in that day, says the Lord: The heart of the king will perish, with the heart of the princes. And the priests will be stupefied, and the prophets will be in consternation.”


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And I said: “Alas, alas, alas, O Lord God! Could it be that you have deceived this people and Jerusalem, saying: ‘Peace shall be yours,’ while, behold, the sword reaches even to the soul?”


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“In that time, it will be said to this people and to Jerusalem: ‘A burning wind is in the ways that are in the desert, along the way of the daughter of my people, but not to winnow and not to cleanse.’


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Behold, he will ascend like a cloud, and his chariot will ascend like a tempest. His horses are swifter than eagles. ‘Woe to us! For we are being devastated!’


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Wash your heart from malice, O Jerusalem, so that you may be saved. How long will harmful thoughts abide in you?


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For there is a voice, of someone announcing from Dan, and he is making known the idol from mount Ephraim.


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Say to the nations: ‘Behold, it has been heard in Jerusalem! Guardians are coming from a far away land, to utter their voice against the cities of Judah.’


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They have been stationed over her, like the guardians of fields, all around. For she has provoked me to wrath, says the Lord.


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Your ways and your thoughts have brought these things upon you. This is your own wickedness. And it is bitter, because it has touched your heart.


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I am afflicted in my heart, in my heart. The senses of my heart have been stirred up within me. I will not remain silent. For my soul has heard the voice of the trumpet, the clamor of the battle.


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Destruction upon destruction has been called forth. And the entire earth has been devastated. My tabernacles have been destroyed suddenly, and my tents in an instant.


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For my foolish people have not known me. They are foolish and mad sons. They are clever in doing evil, but they do not know how to do good.


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I gazed upon the earth, and behold, it was empty and brought to nothing. And I gazed upon the heavens, but there was no light in them.


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I gazed, and behold, Carmel was a desert, and all its cities were destroyed before the face of the Lord, and before the face of the wrath of his fury.”


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For thus says the Lord: “All the earth will be desolate, but I will not yet bring about its consummation.


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The earth will mourn, and the heavens will lament from above. For I have spoken, I have decided, and I have not regretted. Neither will I be turned away from it.


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Before the voice of the horsemen and of those who send forth arrows, the entire city has fled. They have entered steep places, and they have ascended the cliffs. All of the cities have been abandoned, and no man lives within them.


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So then, when you have been devastated, what will you do? Though you will clothe yourself with scarlet, though you will adorn yourself with a gold necklace and tint your eyes with cosmetics, you will be dressing yourself up in vain. Your lovers have spurned you; they will be seeking your life.


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For I have heard a voice, like that of a woman giving birth, during the difficulties of labor. It is the voice of the daughter of Zion, dying, extending her hands: ‘Woe to me! For my soul is failing because of those who have been slain!’ ”


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“Travel the streets of Jerusalem; and gaze, and consider, and seek, in its wide streets. If you can find a man exercising judgment and seeking faith, then I will be forgiving to them.


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O Lord, your eyes look with favor upon faith. You have struck them, and they have not grieved. You have bruised them, and they have refused to accept discipline. They have hardened their faces more than rock, and they are not willing to return.


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But I said: Perhaps these are the poor and the senseless, who are ignorant of the way of the Lord, of the judgment of their God.


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Therefore, I will go to great men, and I will speak with them. For they have known the way of the Lord, the judgment of their God. And behold, these ones have broken the yoke all the more; they have torn apart the bonds.


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For this reason, a lion from the forest has struck them down, a wolf toward evening has laid waste to them, a leopard lies in wait over their cities. All who go out from there will be taken. For their transgressions have been multiplied; their rebellions have been strengthened.


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“Over which things am I able to be merciful to you? Your sons have forsaken me, and they swear by those who are not gods. I gave them everything, and they committed adultery, and they indulged themselves in the house of the harlot.


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Shall I not visit against these things, says the Lord? And shall my soul not take vengeance on a nation such as this?


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Scale its walls and tear them down. But do not be willing to bring about its very end. Take away its plantings, for they are not the Lord’s.


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They have denied the Lord, and they have said, ‘It is not him,’ and, ‘Evil will not overwhelm us. We will not see famine and the sword.’


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The prophets have spoken into the wind, and there was no answer with them. Therefore, these things will happen to them.”


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Thus says the Lord, the God of hosts: “Since you have spoken this word, behold, I will make my words in your mouth like fire and this people like wood, and it will devour them.


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Behold, O house of Israel, I will lead over you a far away nation, says the Lord, a robust nation, an ancient nation, a nation whose language you will not know, nor will you understand what they are saying.


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And they will consume your grain fields and your bread. They will devour your sons and your daughters. They will consume your flocks and your herds. They will consume your vineyards and your figs. And with the sword, they will crush your fortified cities, in which you have placed your trust.


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And if they say, ‘Why has the Lord our God done all these things to us?’ You shall say to them: ‘Just as you have abandoned me and have served a strange god in your own land, so will you serve strangers in a land not your own.’


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Listen, O foolish people who have no heart! You have eyes, but you do not see, and ears, but you do not hear.


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So then, will you not fear me, says the Lord. And will you not have sorrow before my face? I have placed the shore as a limit for the sea, as an everlasting precept that it will not transgress. And its waves will crash, but they will not prevail; and its waves will swell, but they will not go across.


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But the heart of this people has become incredulous and provocative; they have turned away and departed.


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And they have not said in their heart: ‘Let us dread the Lord our God, who gives us the timely and the late rains, in their proper time, who guards the full measure of the yearly harvest for us.’


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For the impious are found among my people; they lie in ambush like fowlers setting snares, for they set traps to catch men.


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Just as a snare is full of birds, so are their houses full of deceit. As a result, they have become exalted and enriched.


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They have grown stout and fat. And they have transgressed my words most wickedly. They have not judged the case of the widow; they have not given guidance to the case of the orphan; and they have not judged a judgment for the poor.


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Shall I not visit against these things, says the Lord? Or shall my soul not take vengeance on a nation of this kind?


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The prophets have prophesied lies, and the priests have applauded with their hands, and my people have loved these things. So then, what shall be done at the very end?”


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“O sons of Benjamin, be strengthened in the midst of Jerusalem, and sound the trumpet in Tekoa, and lift up a banner over the house of Haccherem. For an evil has been seen from the north, with great destruction.


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The pastors will come to her with their flocks. They have pitched their tents against her all around. Each one will feed those who are under his hand.


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‘Sanctify a war against her! Rise up together, and let us ascend at midday.’ ‘Woe to us! For the day has declined; for the shadows of the evening have grown longer.’


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For thus says the Lord of hosts: “Cut down her trees, and build a rampart around Jerusalem. This is the city of visitation! Every kind of false claim is in her midst.


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Just as a cistern makes its water cold, so has she made her wickedness cold. Iniquity and devastation will be heard in her; sickness and wounds will be ever before me.


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O Jerusalem, accept instruction, lest perhaps my soul may withdraw from you; lest perhaps I may set you in a desert, in an uninhabitable land.”


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Thus says the Lord of hosts: “They will gather the remnant of Israel, even as a single cluster of grapes is gathered from a vine. Direct your hand, as a grape-gatherer directs his hand to the basket.


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To whom should I speak, and to whom should I testify, so as to be heard? Behold, their ears are uncircumcised, and so they are unable to hear. Behold, for them, the word of the Lord has become a disgrace. And so they will not accept it.


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For this reason, I have been filled with the fury of the Lord. I labor to bear it. Let it be poured out upon the child outside, or upon a group of young men meeting together. For a man will be taken captive with a woman, an elder will be taken captive with one who is full of days.


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And their houses will be given over to others, with both their lands and their wives. For I will extend my hand over the inhabitants of the earth, says the Lord.


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Certainly, from the least of them even to the greatest, all of them practice greed. And from the prophet even to the priest, all of them act with deceit.


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And they healed the destruction of the daughter of my people with disgrace, by saying: ‘Peace, peace.’ And there was no peace.


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They were confounded, because they committed an abomination. Or rather, they were not confounded with shame, because they did not know how to blush. For this reason, they will fall among those who are being destroyed. In the time of their visitation, they will fall, says the Lord.”


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Thus says the Lord: “Stand above the ways, and see and ask, about the ancient paths, as to which is the good way, and then walk in it. And you will find refreshment for your souls. But they said: ‘We will not walk.’


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And I appointed watchers over you, saying: ‘Listen for the sound of the trumpet.’ And they said: ‘We will not listen.’


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Hear, O earth! Behold, I will lead evils over this people, as the fruits of their own thoughts. For they have not listened to my words, and they have cast aside my law.


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For what reason are you bringing me frankincense from Sheba, and sweet smelling reeds from a far away land? Your holocausts are not acceptable, and your sacrifices are not pleasing to me.”


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Therefore, thus says the Lord: “Behold I will bring this people to utter ruin, and they will fall, with their fathers and sons; neighbor and relative will perish together.”


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Thus says the Lord: “Behold, a people is coming from the land of the north, and a great nation will rise up from the ends of the earth.


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They will take hold of arrow and shield. They are cruel, and they will not take pity. Their voice will roar like the ocean. And they will climb upon horses, for they have been prepared like men for battle, against you, O daughter of Zion.


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‘We have heard of their fame. Our hands have become weakened. Tribulation has overtaken us, like the pains of a woman giving birth.’


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Do not choose to go out into the fields, and you should not walk along the roadway. For the sword and the terror of the enemy is on every side.


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Wrap yourself in haircloth, O daughter of my people. And sprinkle yourself with ashes. Make a mourning for yourself, as for an only son, a bitter lamentation: ‘for the destroyer will overwhelm us suddenly.’


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All these leaders who are turning away and walking deceitfully, they are brass and iron; they have all been corrupted.


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The bellows has failed; the lead has been consumed by fire; the molten metal was melted to no purpose. For their wickedness has not been consumed.


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“Stand at the gate to the house of the Lord, and preach this word there, and say: Listen to the word of the Lord, all you of Judah who enter through these gates to adore the Lord.


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Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Make your ways and your intentions good, and I will live with you in this place.


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Do not choose to trust in lying words, saying: ‘This is the temple of the Lord! The temple of the Lord! The temple of the Lord!’


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For if you direct your ways and your intentions well, if you exercise judgment between a man and his neighbor,


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if you do not act with deceit toward the new arrival, the orphan, and the widow, and if you do not pour out innocent blood in this place, and if you do not walk after strange gods, which is to your own harm,


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then I will live with you in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers from the beginning and even forever.


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so as to steal, to murder, to commit adultery, to swear falsely, to offer libations to Baal, and to go after strange gods, which you do not know.


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And you arrived and stood before me in this house, where my name is invoked, and you said: ‘We have been freed because we carried out all these abominations.’


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So then, has this house, where my name has been invoked, become a den of robbers in your eyes? It is I, I am, I have seen, says the Lord.


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Go to my place in Shiloh, where my name has lived from the beginning, and see what I did to it because of the wickedness of my people Israel.


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And now, because you have done all these works, says the Lord, and because I have spoken to you from your morning rising, and because I was speaking, but you were not listening, and because I have called you, but you have not responded:


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I will do to this house, in which my name is invoked, and in which you have confidence, even to this place which I gave to you and to your fathers, just as I have done to Shiloh.


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And I will cast you away from my face, just as I have cast away all your brothers, the entire offspring of Ephraim.


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Therefore, you should not pray for this people, nor take up praise and supplication on their behalf. And you should not stand in opposition to me. For then I will not heed you.


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The sons gather the wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the wives spread the grease, so as to make cakes to the queen of heaven and to offer libations to strange gods, and so as to provoke me to anger.


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But are they provoking me to anger, says the Lord? Are they not provoking themselves, to the confusion of their own faces?”


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Therefore, thus says the Lord God: “Behold, my fury and my indignation is kindled against this place, over men and over beasts, and over the trees of the countryside and over the fruits of the land, and it will burn and not be extinguished.”


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Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: “Add your holocausts to your sacrifices, and eat the flesh.


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For concerning the matter of holocausts and sacrifices, I did not speak with your fathers, and I did not instruct them, in the day when I led them away from the land of Egypt.


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But on this matter I did instruct them, saying: Listen to my voice, and I will be your God, and you will be my people. And walk in the entire way that I have commanded you, so that it may be well with you.


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But they did not listen, nor did they incline their ear. Instead, they walked by their own will and in the depravity of their own wicked heart. And so, they went backward, and not forward,


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from the day when their fathers went forth from the land of Egypt, even to this day. And I have sent all my servants, the prophets, to you, throughout the day, rising at first light and sending them.


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But they have not listened to me, nor have they inclined their ear. Instead, they have stiffened their neck, and they have behaved worse than their fathers did.


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And so, you will speak to them all these words, but they will not listen to you. And you will call to them, but they will not respond to you.


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And you will say to them: This is the nation that has not listened to the voice of the Lord their God, nor accepted discipline. Faith has perished and been taken away from their mouth.


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Cut off your hair, and cast it away. And take up a lamentation on high. For the Lord has cast aside and abandoned this generation of his fury.


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For the sons of Judah have done evil in my eyes, says the Lord. They have stationed their abominations in the house where my name is invoked, so that they may defile it.


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And they have built the exalted places of Topheth, which is in the Valley of the son of Hinnom, so that they may burn their sons and their daughters with fire, something I neither instructed, nor thought in my heart.


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For this reason, behold, the days will arrive, says the Lord, when it will no longer be called Topheth, nor the Valley of the son of Hinnom, but instead the Valley of Slaughter. Yet they will bury in Topheth, because there will be no other place.


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And the corpses of this people will be food for the birds of the air and for the wild beasts of the land, and there will be no one to drive them away.


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And from the cities of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem, I will cause the cessation of the voice of gladness and the voice of rejoicing, the voice of the groom and the voice of the bride. For the land will be in utter desolation.”


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“In that time, says the Lord, they will cast out the bones of the kings of Judah, and the bones of its leaders, and the bones of the priests, and the bones of the prophets, and the bones of those who were living in Jerusalem, from their graves.


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And they will spread them out before the sun and the moon and the entire army of the heavens, which they have loved, and served, and followed, and which they have sought and adored. They will not be collected, and they will not be buried. They will be like manure upon the face of the earth.


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And they will greatly prefer death to life: all those who will have been left from this wicked kindred, in all the forsaken places to which I will cast them out, says the Lord of hosts.


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And you will say to them: Thus says the Lord: He who falls, will he not rise again? And he who has been turned away, will he not return?


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Then why have this people in Jerusalem turned away with a contentious loathing? They have taken hold of what is false, and they are not willing to return.


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I paid close attention and I listened carefully. No one is speaking what is good. There is no one who does penance for his sin, saying: ‘What have I done?’ They have all turned to their own course, like a horse rushing with fury into battle.


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The hawk in the heavens has known her time. The turtledove, and the swallow, and the stork have kept the time of their arrival. But my people have not known the judgment of the Lord.


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How can you say: ‘We are wise, and the law of the Lord is with us?’ Truly, the lying pen of the scribes has wrought falsehood.


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The wise men have been confounded; they were terrified and captured. For they cast aside the word of the Lord, and there is no wisdom in them.


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Because of this, I will give their wives to outsiders and their fields to others as an inheritance. For from the least, even to the greatest, they all pursue avarice; from the prophet, even to the priest, they all act with deceit.


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And they healed the destruction of the daughter of my people with disgrace, by saying: ‘Peace, peace,’ though there was no peace.


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They have been confounded because they committed abomination. Or rather, they have not been confounded with shame, for they do not know how to blush. For this reason, they will fall among the fallen. In the time of their visitation, they will fall, says the Lord.


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When gathering, I will gather them together, says the Lord. There are no grapes on the vine, and there are no figs on the fig tree. The leaves have fallen. And I have given them the things that have passed away.”


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“Why are we sitting still? Assemble, and let us enter the fortified city, and let us remain silent there. For the Lord our God has brought us to silence, and he has given us the water of gall as a drink. For we have sinned against the Lord.


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“From Dan, the snorting of his horses was heard; the entire land was shaken by the voice of the neighing of his fighters. And they arrived and devoured the land and its plenitude, the city and its inhabitants.


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For behold, I will send among you serpents, king snakes, against which there is no charm, and they will bite you, says the Lord.


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Behold, the voice of the daughter of my people from a far away land. Is the Lord not with Zion, and is her king not within her? Then why have they provoked me to wrath by their graven images, and by their strange vanities?


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Over the destruction of the daughter of my people, I am contrite and saddened; astonishment has taken hold of me.


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Is there no balm in Gilead? Or is there no physician there? Then why has the wound of the daughter of my people not been closed?”


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“Who will provide water for my head, and a fount of tears for my eyes? And then I will weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people.


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Who will provide me, in the wilderness, with a lodging place along the road? And then I will forsake my people, and withdraw from them. For they are all adulterers, a union of transgressors.


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And they have bent their tongue, like a bow, to send forth lies and not the truth. They have been strengthened upon the earth. And they have gone from one evil to another. But they have not known me, says the Lord.


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Let each one guard himself against his neighbor, and let him have no trust in any brother of his. For every brother will utterly overthrow, and every friend will advance deceitfully.


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And a man will deride his brother, and they will not speak the truth. For they have taught their tongue to speak lies; they have labored to commit iniquity.


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Your habitation is in the midst of deceit. In their deceitfulness, they have refused to know me, says the Lord.”


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Because of this, thus says the Lord of hosts: “Behold, I will refine them, and I will test them. For what else can I do before the face of the daughter of my people?


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Their tongue is a wounding arrow; it has spoken deceit. With his mouth, he speaks peace with his friend, and then he secretly lies in ambush for him.


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Shall I not visit upon them concerning these things, says the Lord? Or shall my soul not take vengeance on a nation of this kind?


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I will take up weeping and lamentation over the mountains, and mourning over the beautiful places in the desert. For they have been scorched because no man is passing through them. And they have not heard the voice of any occupant. From the birds of the air, even to the cattle, they have migrated and withdrawn.


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And I will make Jerusalem into piles of sand and into a lair for serpents. And I will make the cities of Judah desolate, so much so that there will be no inhabitant.


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Who is the wise man who understands this, and to whom a word from the mouth of the Lord may be given, so that he may announce this: why the land has perished, and has been scorched like a desert, so much so that no one passes through it?”


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And the Lord said: “It is because they have abandoned my law, which I gave to them, and they have not listened to my voice, and they have not walked by it.


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And they have gone after the depravity of their own heart, and after Baal, which they learned from their fathers.”


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For this reason, thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: “Behold, I will feed this people with absinthe, and I will give them the water of gall to drink.


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And I will disperse them among nations, which they and their fathers have not known. And I will send the sword after them, until they are consumed.”


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Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: “Consider and call upon the women mourners, and let them approach. And send to those women who are wise, and let them hurry.


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‘Let them hasten to take up a lamentation over us. Let our eyes shed tears, and our eyelids run with water.’


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For a voice of lamentation has been heard from Zion: ‘How is it that we have been devastated and greatly confounded? Our tabernacles have been thrown down because we have forsaken the land.’ ”


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“Therefore, listen, O women, to the word of the Lord! And let your ears take up the word of his mouth. And teach your daughters to lament. And let each one teach her neighbor to mourn:


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‘For death has climbed through our windows. It has entered our houses to perish the little children from the outdoors, the youths from the streets.’ ”


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“Speak: Thus says the Lord: And the corpses of men will fall like manure over the face of the countryside, and like hay behind the back of the reaper, and there will be no one to gather it.”


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Thus says the Lord: “The wise man should not glory in his wisdom, and the strong man should not glory in his strength, and the rich man should not glory in his riches.


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But he who glories should glory in this: to know me and to know me well. For I am the Lord, who accomplishes mercy and judgment and justice upon the earth. For these things are pleasing to me, says the Lord.


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upon Egypt, and upon Judah, and upon Edom, and upon the sons of Ammon, and upon Moab, and upon all who have shaved off their hair, living in the desert. For all the nations are uncircumcised in body, but all the house of Israel is uncircumcised in heart.”


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Thus says the Lord: “Do not choose to learn according to the ways of the Gentiles. And do not be willing to dread the signs of heaven, which the Gentiles fear.


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For the laws of the people are empty. For the work of the hand of the craftsman has cut a tree from the forest with an axe.


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He has adorned it with silver and gold. He has put it together with nail and hammer, so that it will not fall apart.


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They have been fabricated in the likeness of a palm tree, and they will not speak. They must be carried to be moved, because they do not have the ability to walk. Therefore, do not be willing to fear them, for they can do neither evil nor good.”


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Who will not fear you, O King of the nations? For honor is yours. Among all the wise of the nations, and within all their kingdoms, there is nothing similar to you.


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Together, they will all be proven to be unwise and foolish. The doctrine of their vanity is made of wood.


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Rolled silver is brought from Tarshish, and gold from Uphaz. It is the work of a craftsman, and of the hand of a coppersmith. Hyacinth and purple is their clothing. All these things are the work of artists.


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But the Lord is the true God. He is the living God and the everlasting King. Before his indignation, the earth will shake. And the Gentiles will not be able to withstand his threats.


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“And so, you shall speak to them in this way: The gods that have not made heaven and earth, let them perish from the earth and from among those places which are under heaven.


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He made the earth by his power, he prepared the world in his wisdom, and he stretched out the heavens with his understanding.


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At his voice, he grants a multitude of waters in the heavens, and he lifts up the clouds from the ends of the earth. He causes the lightning with the rain, and he leads forth the wind from his storehouses.


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Every man has become a fool concerning knowledge; every artist has been confounded by his graven image. For what he has formed is false, and there is no spirit in these things.


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These things are empty, and they are a work deserving of ridicule. In the time of their visitation, they will perish.


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Jacob’s portion is not like their portion. For his portion is from the One who formed all things. And Israel is the staff of his inheritance. The Lord of hosts is his name.


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For thus says the Lord: “Behold, in this turn, I will cast the inhabitants of the land far away. And I will afflict them no matter where they may be found.”


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Woe to me, concerning my destruction! My wound is very grievous. And yet I said: Clearly, this infirmity is mine, and I will carry it.


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My tent has been destroyed. All my cords have been broken. My sons have gone away from me; they did not remain. There is no one to stretch out my tent any more, nor to set up my curtains.


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For the pastors have acted foolishly, and they have not sought the Lord. Because of this, they have not understood, and all their flock has been dispersed.


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Behold, the sound of a voice approaches, a great commotion from the land of the north: so that he may make the cities of Judah into a wilderness and into a dwelling place for serpents.


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I know, O Lord, that the way of man is not his own. Neither is it given to man to walk and to direct his own steps.


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Correct me, O Lord, yet truly, do so with judgment, and not in your fury. Otherwise, you will reduce me to nothing.


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Pour out your indignation upon the nations that have not known you, and upon the provinces that have not invoked your name. For they have fed upon Jacob, and devoured him, and consumed him, and they have utterly destroyed his honor.


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“Listen to the words of this covenant, and speak to the men of Judah and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.


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And you shall say to them: Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Cursed is the man who will not listen to the words of this covenant,


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which I commanded to your fathers in the day when I led them away from the land of Egypt, away from the iron furnace, saying: Listen to my voice, and do all that I command you, and then you will be my people and I will be your God.


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So shall I uphold the oath which I swore to your fathers, that I would give them a land flowing with milk and honey, just as it is this day.” And I answered by saying: “Amen, O Lord.”


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And the Lord said to me: “Shout all these words in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem, saying: Listen to the words of the covenant, and do them.


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For when testing, I tested your fathers in the day when I led them away from the land of Egypt, even until this day. Rising early, I tested them, and I said: Listen to my voice.


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But they did not listen, nor did they incline their ear. Instead, each one of them walked in the depravity of his own evil heart. And so, I brought over them all the words of this covenant, which I instructed them to do. But they would not do them.”


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And the Lord said to me: “A conspiracy has been found among the men of Judah and among the inhabitants of Jerusalem.


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They have returned to the former iniquities of their fathers, who refused to listen to my words. And likewise, they have gone after strange gods, so that they may serve them. The house of Israel and the house of Judah have treated as void my covenant, which I made with their fathers.


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For this reason, thus says the Lord: Behold, I will lead evils over them, from which they will not be able to escape. And they will cry out to me, and I will not heed them.


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And the cities of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem will go forth, and they will cry out to the gods, to whom they offer libations, and they will not save them in the time of their affliction.


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For according to the number of your cities, so were your gods, O Judah. And according to the number of the streets of Jerusalem, so did you establish altars of confusion, altars to offer libations to Baal.


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Therefore, you should not choose to pray for this people, and you should not take up praise and petitioning on their behalf. For I will not heed them in the time of their outcry to me, in the time of their affliction.


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Why has my beloved wrought great wickedness in my house? How can the holy flesh take away from you your wickedness, in which you have gloried?


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The Lord has called your name: a beautiful, fruitful, splendid, and productive olive tree. At the voice of a word, a great fire was kindled in it, and its greenery was burned up.


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And the Lord of hosts, who planted you, has pronounced an evil against you, concerning the evils of the house of Israel and the house of Judah, which they have done to themselves so as to provoke me, by offering libations to Baal.”


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But you, O Lord, have revealed this to me, and I have understood. Then you displayed their efforts to me.


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And I was like a meek lamb, who is being carried to be a victim. And I did not realize that they had devised plans against me, saying: “Let us place wood upon his bread, and let us eradicate him from the land of the living, and let his name no longer be remembered.”


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But you, O Lord of hosts, who judges justly, and who tests the temperament and the heart, let me see your vengeance against them. For I have revealed my case to you.


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“Because of this, thus says the Lord to the men of Anathoth, who are seeking your life, and who are saying: ‘You shall not prophesy in the name of the Lord, and you shall not die by our hands.’


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Because of this, thus says the Lord of hosts: Behold, I will visit upon them. Their young men will die by the sword. Their sons and their daughters will die by famine.


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And there will be nothing left of them. For I will lead an evil over the men of Anathoth: the year of their visitation.”


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Certainly, O Lord, you are just. But if I may contend with you, while still speaking what is just to you: Why does the way of the impious prosper? Why is it well with all those who transgress and act unfairly?


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You planted them, and they took root. They are prospering and bearing fruit. You are near to their mouths, but far from their hearts.


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And you, O Lord, have known me well. You have seen me, and you have tested my heart with you. Gather them together like a flock for the sacrifice and sanctify them for the day of slaughter.


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How long shall the earth mourn? And how long shall the plants of every field whither because of the wickedness of the inhabitants within them? It has consumed the wild animals and the birds. For they said: “He will not see our very end.”


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“If you have struggled to run on foot, how will you be able to compete with horses? And if you have been secure in a land of peace, what will you do about the arrogance of the Jordan?


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For even your brothers, and the house of your father, even these have fought against you. And they have cried out after you with loud voice: ‘You should not believe them, when they speak good things to you.’ ”


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“I have abandoned my house. I have disowned my inheritance. I have given my beloved soul into the hand of its enemies.


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My inheritance has become for me like a lion in the forest. It has uttered a voice against me, therefore, I have hated it.


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Is my inheritance to me like a discolored bird? Is it like a bird that has entirely changed color? Approach and assemble, all beasts of the earth! Hurry, so that you may devour!


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Many pastors have demolished my vineyard. They have trampled my portion. They have made my desirable portion into a desert of solitude.


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They have squandered it, and it has grieved concerning me. The entire earth has become utterly desolate, because there is no one who understands with the heart.”


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The devastators have arrived, over all the ways of the wilderness. For the sword of the Lord will devour, from one end of the earth even to its furthest limits. There is no peace for all that is flesh.


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They sowed wheat, but they reaped thorns. They received an inheritance, but it will not benefit them. You will be confounded by your own fruits, because of the wrath of the fury of the Lord.


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Thus says the Lord against all my wicked neighbors, who touch the inheritance that I have distributed to my people Israel: “Behold, I will root them out of their own land, and I will root the house of Judah out of their midst.


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And when I have rooted them out, I will turn back and take pity on them. And I will lead them back, one man to his inheritance, and another man to his land.


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And this shall be: if they are taught and they learn the ways of my people, so that they swear by my name, ‘As the Lord lives,’ just as they had taught my people to swear by Baal, then they will be built up in the midst of my people.


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But if they will not listen, I will uproot that nation unto utter destruction and perdition, says the Lord.”


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Thus says the Lord to me: “Go, and obtain for yourself a linen waistcloth. And you shall place it over your loins, and you shall not put it into water.”


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“Take the waistcloth, which you obtained, which is around your loins, and, rising up, go to the Euphrates, and hide it there in an opening of the rock.”


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And it happened that, after many days, the Lord said to me: “Rise up, go to the Euphrates, and take from there the waistcloth, which I instructed you to hide there.”


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And so I went to the Euphrates, and I dug up and took the waistcloth from the place where I had hidden it. And behold, the waistcloth had rotted, so that it was not fit for any use.


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“Thus says the Lord: In the same way, I will cause the arrogance of Judah and the arrogance of Jerusalem to rot.


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This most wicked people, they are not willing to listen to my words, for they walk in the depravity of their own heart, and they have gone after strange gods, so as to serve them and to adore them. And so, they will become like this waistcloth, which is not fit for any use.


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For just as the waistcloth clings to the loins of a man, so have I brought close to me the entire house of Israel and the entire house of Judah, says the Lord, so that they would be to me: a people, and a name, and a praise, and a glory. But they did not listen.


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Therefore, you shall speak to them this word: Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: ‘Every bottle will be filled with wine.’ And they will say to you: ‘Are we ignorant that every bottle will be filled with wine?’


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And you shall say to them: Thus says the Lord: Behold, I will fill all the inhabitants of this land, and the kings from the stock of David who sit upon his throne, and the priests, and the prophets, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, unto inebriation.


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And I will scatter them, a man from his brother, and fathers and sons similarly, says the Lord. I will not spare them, and I will not pardon them, and I will not take pity, so as not to destroy them.”


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Give glory to the Lord your God, before darkness falls, and before your feet stumble on the darkened mountains. You will expect light, but he will turn it into the shadow of death and into utter darkness.


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But if you will not listen to this, then my soul will weep in secret before the face of your pride. It will weep bitterly, and my eyes will flow with tears, because the flock of the Lord has been taken captive.


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“Say to the king and to the female ruler: Humble yourselves, sit down. For the crown of your glory has gone down from your head.


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The cities of the south have been closed, and there is no one who may open them. All of Judah has been taken away into complete captivity.


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Lift up your eyes and see, you who are arriving from the north. Where is the flock that was given to you, your famous cattle?


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What will you say when he visits upon you? For you have taught them against you, and you have instructed them with your own head. Will not pains take hold of you, as with a woman in labor?


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But if you say in your heart, ‘Why have these things happened to me?’ it is because of the greatness of your iniquity that your shame has been uncovered and the soles of your feet have been defiled.


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If the Ethiopian is able to change his skin, or the leopard is able to change his spots, then you also may be able to do well, though you have learned evil.


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This is your lot, and this is the portion of your measure from me, says the Lord, because you have forgotten me, and you have had confidence in what is false.


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For I have seen your adulteries, and your neighing for the wickedness of your fornication, and your abominations upon the hills in the field. Woe to you, Jerusalem! How much longer before you will be made clean after me?”


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“Judea has mourned. And its gates have fallen and become hard to discern on the ground. And the outcry of Jerusalem has ascended.


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The greater ones have sent their lesser ones to the water. They went to draw water; they did not find water; they carried their vessels back empty. They were confounded and afflicted, and so they covered their heads.


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Because of the devastation of the earth, because rain did not fall upon the earth, the farmers were confounded; they covered their heads.


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And the wild donkeys stood upon the rocks; like dragons, they drew in the wind, but their eyes failed. For there was no grass.”


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“O Lord, if our iniquities have responded against us, let it be for the sake of your name. For our rebellions are many; we have sinned against you.


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O Hope of Israel, its Savior in time of tribulation, why would you be like a sojourner in the land, and like a traveler turning aside for lodging?


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Why would you be like a wandering man, like a strong man who is unable to save? But you, O Lord, are with us, and your name is invoked over us, so do not abandon us!”


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Thus says the Lord to this people, who have loved to move their feet, and who have not rested, but who have not pleased the Lord: “Now he will remember their iniquities, and now he will visit against their sins.”


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When they will fast, I will not heed their petitions. And if they offer holocausts and victims, I will not accept them. For I will consume them by the sword, and by famine, and by pestilence.”


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And I said: “Alas, alas, alas, O Lord God! The prophets are saying to them: ‘You will not see the sword, and there will be no famine among you. Instead, he will give you true peace in this place.’ ”


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And the Lord said to me: “The prophets prophesy falsely in my name. I did not send them, and I did not instruct them, and I have not spoken to them. They prophesy to you a lying vision, and a divination, and a fraud, and a seduction from their own heart.


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For this reason, thus says the Lord about the prophets who prophesy in my name, whom I have not sent, who say: ‘Sword and famine will not be in this land.’ By sword and famine those prophets will be consumed.


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And the people, to whom they prophesy, will be cast into the streets of Jerusalem, due to famine and the sword, and there will be no one who may bury them, they and their wives, their sons and daughters, and I will pour out their own evil upon them.


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And you shall speak this word to them: Let my eyes shed tears throughout the night and day, and let them not cease. For the virgin daughter of my people has been crushed by a great affliction, by a very grievous wound.”


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“If I go out into the fields: behold, those slain by the sword. And if I enter into the city: behold, those weakened by famine. Likewise, the prophet, too, and the priest, have gone into a land that they did not know.


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Could you have utterly cast out Judah? Or has your soul abhorred Zion? Then why have you struck us, so much so that there is no health for us? We have waited for peace, but there is nothing good, and for the time of healing, and behold, trouble.


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O Lord, we acknowledge our impieties, the iniquities of our fathers, that we have sinned against you.


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For the sake of your name, do not give us over into disgrace. And do not dishonor in us the throne of your glory. Remember, do not make void, your covenant with us.


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Could any of the graven images of the Gentiles send rain? Or are the heavens able to give showers? Have we not hoped in you, the Lord our God? For you have made all these things.”


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And the Lord said to me: “Even if Moses and Samuel were to stand before me, my soul would not be toward this people. Cast them away from my face, and let them depart!


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And if they say to you, ‘Where shall we go?’ you shall say to them: Thus says the Lord: Those who go to death, shall go to death. And those who go to the sword, shall go to the sword, and those go to famine, shall go to famine, and those who go to captivity, shall go to captivity.


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And I will visit against them in four ways, says the Lord: by the sword, to kill; and by dogs, to tear apart; and by the birds of the air and by the beasts of the earth, to devour and to scatter.


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And I will give them over to the fervor of all the kingdoms of the earth, because of Manasseh, the son of Hezekiah, the king of Judah, because of all that he did in Jerusalem.


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For who will take pity on you, O Jerusalem? Or who will feel sorrow for you? Or who will go to prayer for the sake of your peace?


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You have abandoned me, says the Lord. You have gone backwards. And so, I will extend my hand over you, and I will destroy you. I have labored to plead with you.


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And I will scatter them with a winnowing fan at the gates of the land. I have killed and dispersed my people, and yet they have not turned back from their ways.


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Their widows have been multiplied by me, more so than the sand of the sea. I have led them against the mother of a youth like an attacker at midday. I have sent a terror suddenly against the cities.


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She who gave birth to seven has become weak. Her life has faded away. Her sun has set while it was still daytime. She has been confounded and shamed. And the remainder of them I will give over to the sword in the sight of their enemies, says the Lord.”


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“O my mother, woe to me! Why did you conceive me, a man of strife, a man of discord to all the earth? I have not lent money at interest, nor has anyone lent money at interest to me. Yet everyone is cursing me.”


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The Lord says: “Certainly, it will be well with your remnant. Certainly, I will run to meet you, in the time of affliction and in the time of tribulation, against the enemy.


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Your riches and your treasures I will give over to be freely despoiled, because of all your sins, even throughout all your borders.


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And I will lead in your enemies from a land that you do not know. For a fire has been kindled in my fury; it will burn upon you.”


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“You know me, O Lord. Remember me, and visit me, and watch over me, because of those who persecute me. In your patience, do not choose to let me endure. You know I have suffered reproach because of you.


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I discovered your words and I consumed them. And your word became to me as the gladness and joy of my heart. For your name has been invoked over me, O Lord, the God of hosts.


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I did not sit in the company of mockers, nor did I glorify myself before the presence of your hand. I sat alone, because you filled me with threats.


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Why has my sorrow become never-ending, and why has my wound become so dire that it refuses to be cured? It has become for me like the deception of untrustworthy waters.”


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Because of this, thus says the Lord: “If you will be converted, I will convert you. And you will stand before my face. And you will separate what is precious from what is vile. You will be my mouthpiece. They will be converted to you, but you will not be converted to them.


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And I will present you to this people as a strong wall of brass. And they will fight against you, and they will not prevail. For I am with you, so as to save you and to rescue you, says the Lord.


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And I will free you from hand of those who are most wicked, and I will redeem you from the hand of the powerful.”


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For thus says the Lord concerning the sons and daughters who are conceived in this place, and concerning their mothers who give birth to them, and concerning their fathers, from whose stock they have been born in this land:


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They will die from grievous mortal illnesses. They will not be mourned, and they will not be buried. They will be like manure on the face of the earth. And they will be consumed by sword and by famine. And their dead bodies will be food for the birds of the air and the beasts of the land.”


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For thus says the Lord: “You shall not enter the house of feasting, and you shall not go to mourn or to console them. For I have taken away from this people, says the Lord, my peace, my mercy, and my pity.


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Both the great and the small will die in this land. They will not be buried, and they will not be mourned. And no one will cut themselves or make themselves bald on their behalf.


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And they will not break bread among themselves for the sake of him who mourns, so as to console him over the dead. And they will not give them a chalice to drink, so as to console them over their father and mother.


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For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: “Behold, I will take away from this place, in your sight and in your days, the voice of gladness and the voice of rejoicing, the voice of the groom and the voice of the bride.


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And when you announce all these words to this people, they will say to you: ‘Why would the Lord pronounce all this great evil against us? What is our iniquity and what is our sin that we have committed against the Lord our God?’


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And you shall say to them: It is because your fathers abandoned me, says the Lord. And they went after strange gods, and they served them and adored them. And they abandoned me, and they did not keep my law.


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But you have acted even worse than your fathers. For behold, each one walks after the depravity of his own evil heart, so that he does not listen to me.


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And so, I will cast you out of this land, into a land that you do not know, and that your fathers did not know. And in that place, you will serve, day and night, strange gods who will not give you rest.


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Therefore, behold, the days are approaching, says the Lord, when it will no longer be said, ‘As the Lord lives, who led the sons of Israel away from the land of Egypt,’


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but instead, ‘As the Lord lives, who led the sons of Israel away from the land of the north,’ and from all the lands to which I have cast them out. And I will lead them back into their own land, which I gave to their fathers.


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Behold, I will send many fishermen, says the Lord, and they will fish for them. And after this, I will send many hunters to them, and they will hunt for them on every mountain, and on every hilltop, and in the caverns of the rocks.


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For my eyes are upon all their ways. They have not been hidden from my face, and their iniquity has not been concealed from my eyes.


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But first, I will repay their double iniquities and their sins. For they have defiled my land with the dead bodies of their idols, and they have filled my inheritance with their abominations.”


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“O Lord, my strength, and my health, and my refuge in the day of tribulation: the Gentiles will approach you from the ends of the earth, and they will say: ‘Truly, our fathers possessed a lie, an emptiness that has not benefited them.’


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“Concerning this, behold: I will make it clear to them, in this turn. I will reveal to them my hand and my virtue. And they will know that the Lord is my name.”


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“The sin of Judah has been written with a pen of iron and a point of diamond. It has been engraved upon the breadth of their heart and upon the horns of their shrines.


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And their sons make a remembrance of their shrines, and their sacred groves, and their leafy trees on high mountains,


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by sacrificing in the field. And so, I will give over your strength and all your treasures to be despoiled, along with your exalted places of sin, within all your borders.


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And you will be left behind without your inheritance, which I gave to you. And I will cause you to serve your enemies in a land that you do not know. For you have kindled a fire in my fury; it shall burn, even unto eternity.”


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Thus says the Lord: “Cursed is a man who trusts in man, and who establishes what is flesh as his right arm, and whose heart withdraws from the Lord.


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For he will be like a saltcedar tree in the desert. And he will not perceive it, when what is good has arrived. Instead, he will live in dryness, in a desert, in a land of salt, which is uninhabitable.


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And he will be like a tree planted beside waters, which sends out its roots to moist soil. And it will not fear when the heat arrives. And its leaves will be green. And in the time of drought, it will not be anxious, nor will it cease at any time to bear fruit.


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I am the Lord, who examines the heart and tests the temperament, who gives to each one according to his way and according to the fruit of his own decisions.


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A partridge has hatched eggs that she did not lay; a man has gathered riches, but without judgment. In the midst of his days, he will leave it all behind, and he will be foolish concerning his very end.”


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O Lord, Hope of Israel: all who forsake you will be confounded. Those who withdraw from you will be written into the earth. For they have abandoned the Lord, the Source of living waters.


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But I am not troubled; I am following you as my shepherd. And I have not desired the day of man, as you know. That which has gone forth from my lips has been right in your sight.


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May those who persecute me be confounded, but may I not be confounded. May they be fearful, and may I not be fearful. Lead over them the day of affliction, and crush them with a double destruction.”


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Thus says the Lord to me: “Go, and stand at the gate of the sons of the people, through which the kings of Judah enter and depart, and at all the gates of Jerusalem.


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And you shall say to them: Listen to the word of the Lord, O kings of Judah, and all of Judah, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, who enter through these gates.”


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Thus says the Lord: “Guard your souls, and do not choose to carry heavy things on the day of the Sabbath, nor should you carry these things through the gates of Jerusalem.


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And do not be willing to cast burdens out of your houses on the day of the Sabbath, nor should you do any work. Sanctify the day of the Sabbath, just as I instructed your fathers.


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But they did not listen, nor did they incline their ear. Instead, they hardened their neck, lest they listen to me and receive discipline.


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And this shall be: If you listen to me, says the Lord, so that you do not carry in burdens through the gates of this city on the day of the Sabbath, and if you sanctify the day of the Sabbath, so that you do not do work in it,


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then there will enter through the gates of this city: kings and princes, sitting on the throne of David, and riding on chariots and horses, they and their princes, the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And this city will be inhabited forever.


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And they will arrive from the cities of Judah and from all around Jerusalem, and from the land of Benjamin, and from the plains, and from the mountainous regions, and from the south, carrying holocausts, and victims, and sacrifices, and frankincense. And they will carry an oblation into the house of the Lord.


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But if you will not listen to me, to sanctify the day of the Sabbath, and not to carry burdens, and not to bring these things through the gates of Jerusalem on the day of the Sabbath, then I will kindle a fire at its gates, and it will devour the houses of Jerusalem, and it will not be extinguished.”


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And the vessel, which he was making with his hands out of clay, broke. And turning away, he made another vessel, for it had been pleasing in his eyes to make it.


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“Am I not able to do with you, O house of Israel, just as this potter has done, says the Lord? Behold, like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel.


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Suddenly, I will speak against a nation and against a kingdom, so that I may uproot, and destroy, and scatter it.


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If that nation, against which I have spoken, will repent from their evil, I too will repent from the evil that I have decided I would do to them.


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If it does evil in my sight, so as not to listen to my voice, I will repent of the good that I have said I would do to it.


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Now, therefore, speak to the men of Judah and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying: Thus says the Lord: Behold, I am forming an evil against you, and I am considering a plan against you. Let each one of you return from his evil way, and direct your ways and your intentions well.”


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And they said: “We have lost hope. And so we will follow our own thoughts, and each of us will act according to the depravity of his own evil heart.”


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For this reason, thus says the Lord: “Inquire among the Gentiles. Who has heard of such horrible things as the virgin of Israel has done to excess?


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Do the snows of Lebanon fail to fall on the rocks of the field? Or are the cold waters, which burst forth and flow down, able to be rooted out?


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Yet my people have forgotten me, offering useless libations, and stumbling in their ways, in the paths of the world, so that they walk by these on an unmarked route.


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And so their land has been given over to desolation and to perpetual hissing. Each one who passes by will be astonished and will shake his head.


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Like a burning wind, I will disperse them in the sight the enemy. I will show them the back, and not the face, in the day of their perdition.”


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And they said: “Come, and let us devise a plan against Jeremiah. For the law will not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor a sermon from the prophet. Come, and let us strike him with the tongue, and let us pay no attention to any of his words.”


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Should evil be rendered for good? For they have dug a pit for my soul! Remember that I have stood in your sight, so as to speak on their behalf for good, and to avert your indignation from them.


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Because of this, give their sons over to famine, and bring them to the hand of the sword. Let their wives be widows without children. And let their husbands be slain by death. Let their youths be stabbed with the sword in battle.


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Let an outcry be heard from their houses. For you will lead the robber upon them suddenly. For they have dug a pit, so that they may seize me, and they have hidden snares for my feet.


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But you, O Lord, know all their plans against me unto death. May you not forgive their iniquity, and do not allow their sin be taken away from your face. Let them be thrown down in your sight, in the time of your fury, so that you may destroy them.


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Thus says the Lord: “Go, and take a potter’s earthen bottle from the elders of the people and from the elders of the priests.


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And go out to the valley of the son of Hinnom, which is near the entrance to the earthen gate, and there you shall proclaim the words that I will speak to you.


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And you shall say: Listen to the word of the Lord, O kings of Judah, and you inhabitants of Jerusalem. Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will lead an affliction over this place, so much so that it will ring in the ears of all who hear about it.


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For they have abandoned me, and they have made this place foreign, and they have offered libations in it to foreign gods, whom neither they, nor their fathers, nor the kings of Judah have known. And they have filled this place with the blood of the innocent.


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And they have built the exalted places of Baal, in order to burn their children with fire as a holocaust to Baal, something that I did not instruct or speak of, nor did it enter into my heart.


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Because of this, behold, the days are approaching, says the Lord, when this place will no longer be called Topheth, or the valley of the son of Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter.


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And I will scatter the counsel of Judah and of Jerusalem in this place. And I will overthrow them with the sword, in the sight of their enemies and by the hand of those who seek their lives. And I will give their carcasses to the birds of the air and to the beasts of the land as food.


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And I will set this city amid stupor and hissing. Everyone who passes by it will be stupefied, and they will hiss over all its wounds.


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And I will feed them with the flesh of their sons and with the flesh of their daughters. And each one of them will eat the flesh of his friend during the blockade and the embargo by which their enemies, and those who seek their lives, will enclose them.


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And you shall say to them: Thus says the Lord of hosts: In the same way, I will crush this people and this city, just as the potter’s vessel was crushed and cannot be made whole again. And they will be buried at Topheth, because there will be no other place for burial.


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So will I do to this place and to its inhabitants, says the Lord. And I will make this city to be like Topheth.


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And the houses of Jerusalem and the houses of the kings of Judah will be unclean, just like the place of Topheth: all the houses on whose roofs they sacrificed to all the armies of heaven and poured out libations to strange gods.”


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Then Jeremiah arrived from Topheth, where the Lord had sent him to prophesy, and he stood in the atrium of the house of the Lord, and he said to all the people:


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“Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will lead over this community, and over all its cities, all the evils that I have spoken against it. For they have hardened their necks, so that they would not heed my words.”


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And Pashhur, the son of Immer, the priest who had been appointed leader in the house of the Lord, heard Jeremiah prophesying these words.


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And Pashhur struck the prophet Jeremiah, and he sent him to the stocks, which were at the upper gate of Benjamin at the house of the Lord.


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And when it had become light on the next day, Pashhur led Jeremiah from the stocks. And Jeremiah said to him: “The Lord has not called your name: ‘Pashhur,’ but instead: ‘Fear all around.’ ”


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For thus says the Lord: “Behold, I will give you over to fear, you and all your friends, and they will fall by the sword of their enemies, and your eyes will see it. And I will give all of Judah into the hand of the king of Babylon. And he will lead them away to Babylon, and he will strike them with the sword.


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And I will give away the entire substance of this city, and all its labor, and every precious thing. And I will give all the treasures of the kings of Judah into the hands of their enemies. And they will plunder them, and take them away, and lead them into Babylon.


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But you, Pashhur, and all the inhabitants of your house, will go into captivity. And you will go to Babylon. And there you shall die. And there you shall be buried, you and all your friends, to whom you have prophesied a lie.”


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“You have led me away, O Lord, and I have been led away. You have been stronger than I, and you have prevailed. I have become a derision all day long; everyone mocks me.


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For I speak now as I have long spoken: crying out against iniquity and proclaiming devastation. And the word of the Lord has been made into a reproach against me and a derision, all day long.


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Then I said: I will not call him to mind, nor will I speak any longer in his name. And my heart became like a raging fire, enclosed within my bones. And I became weary of continuing to bear it.


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For I heard the insults of many, and terror all around: ‘Persecute him!’ and, ‘Let us persecute him!’ from all the men who had been at peace with me and who had kept watch by my side. ‘If only there were some way that he might be deceived, and we might prevail against him and obtain vengeance from him!’


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But the Lord is with me, like a strong warrior. For this reason, those who persecute me will fall, and they will be ineffective. They will be greatly confounded. For they have not understood the everlasting disgrace that will never be wiped away.


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And you, O Lord of hosts, the Tester of the just, who sees the temperament and the heart: I beg you to let me see your vengeance upon them. For I have revealed my case to you.


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Sing to the Lord! Praise the Lord! For he has freed the soul of the poor from the hand of the wicked.


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Cursed is the day on which I was born! The day on which my mother gave birth to me: let it not be blessed!


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Cursed is the man who announced it to my father, saying, ‘A male child has been born to you,’ causing him to rejoice with gladness.


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Let that man be like the cities that the Lord has overthrown without regret. Let him hear an outcry in the morning, and wailing at the time of midday!


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So let him be, who did not put me to death from the womb, so that my mother would have been my sepulcher, and her womb would have been my eternal resting place!


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Why did I depart from the womb, so that I would see hardship and sorrow, and so that my days would be consumed by trouble?”


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The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, when king Zedekiah sent Pashhur, the son of Malchiah, and Zephaniah, the son of Maaseiah, the priest, to him, saying:


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“Question the Lord on our behalf, for Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, is fighting against us. Perhaps it may be that the Lord will act toward us according to all his wonders, and he may withdraw from us.”


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Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Behold, I will turn back the weapons of war that are in your hands, with which you fight against the king of Babylon and the Chaldeans, who besiege you at the surrounding walls. And I will gather these things together in the midst of this city.


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And I myself will make war against you: with an outstretched hand, and with a strong arm, and in fury, and in indignation, and in great wrath.


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And afterward, thus says the Lord: I will give Zedekiah, the king of Judah, and his servants, and his people, and those who have been left behind in this city after pestilence and the sword and famine, into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, and into the hand of their enemies, and into the hand of those who seek their lives. And he will strike them with the edge of the sword. And he will not waver, and he will not be lenient, and he will not take pity.


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And to this people, you shall say: Thus says the Lord: Behold, I set before you the way of life and the way of death.


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Whoever lives in this city will die by the sword, and by famine, and by pestilence. But whoever will have departed and fled away to the Chaldeans, who besiege you, will live, and his life will be to him like a spoil.


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For I have set my face against this city for evil, and not for good, says the Lord. It will be given into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he will burn it with fire.


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O house of David! Thus says the Lord: Judge with judgment from early morning, and rescue anyone who is oppressed by violence from the hand of a false accuser. Otherwise, my indignation may go forth like a fire, and may flare up, and there will be no one who can extinguish it, because of the evil of your intentions.


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Behold, I am against you, O inhabitants of a valley with firm and level ground, says the Lord. And you say: ‘Who can strike us? And who can enter into our houses?’


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But I will visit against you according to the fruit of your intentions, says the Lord. And I will kindle a fire in its forest. And it shall devour everything around it.”


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Thus says the Lord: “Descend to the house of the king of Judah, and there you shall speak this word.


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And you shall say: Listen to the word of the Lord, O king of Judah, who sits upon the throne of David: you and your servants, and your people, who enter through these gates.


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Thus says the Lord: Exercise judgment and justice, and free anyone who is oppressed by violence from the hand of a false accuser. And do not be willing to sadden the new arrival, or the orphan, or the widow, nor should you burden them unfairly. And you shall not shed innocent blood in this place.


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For if you will indeed accomplish this word, then there will enter through the gates of this house kings from the stock of David, sitting on his throne, and riding on chariots and on horses: they, and their servants, and their people.


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But if you will not listen to these words, I swear by myself, says the Lord, that this house will be in desolation.


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For thus says the Lord about the house of the king of Judah: You are to me like Gilead, the head of Lebanon. Certainly, I will make you desolate, with uninhabitable cities.


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And I will sanctify over you the destroying man and his weapons. And they will cut down your select cedars and throw them violently into the fire.


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And many nations will pass through this city. And each one will say to his neighbor: ‘Why has the Lord acted in this way toward this great city?’


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And they will answer: ‘It is because they abandoned the covenant of the Lord their God, and they adored strange gods and served them.’


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You should not choose to weep for the dead, nor should you mourn over them with tears. Lament for him who is departing, for he will return no more, nor will he see his native land again.


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For thus says the Lord to Shallum, the son of Josiah, the king of Judah, who reigned in place of his father, who has departed from this place: He will not return here again.


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Instead, he will die in the place to which I have transferred him, and he will not see this land anymore.


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Woe to one who builds his house with injustice and his upper rooms without judgment, who oppresses his friend without cause and does not pay him his wages.


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And he says: ‘I will build a broad house for myself, with spacious upper rooms.’ He makes windows for himself, and he builds the roof out of cedar, and he paints it with red ocher.


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Will you reign because you compare yourself to the cedar? Did your father not eat and drink, and act with judgment and justice, so that it would be well with him?


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He judged the case of the poor and the indigent for their good. Was this not because he knew me, says the Lord?


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Yet truly, your eyes and your heart are toward avarice and the shedding of innocent blood, and toward false accusations and the pursuit of evil deeds.


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Because of this, thus says the Lord toward Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, king of Judah: They will not mourn for him by saying, ‘Alas,’ to a brother, or, ‘Alas,’ to a sister. They will not make a noise for him and say, ‘Alas,’ to a master, or, ‘Alas,’ to a nobleman.


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He will be buried with the burial of a donkey, having rotted and been thrown out of the gates of Jerusalem.


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Ascend to Lebanon and cry out! And utter your voice in Bashan, and cry out to those passing by. For all your lovers have been crushed.


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I spoke to you in your abundance, and you said, ‘I will not listen.’ This has been your way from your youth, for you have not listened to my voice.


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The wind will feed all your shepherds, and your lovers will go into captivity. And then you will be confounded, and you will be ashamed of all your wickedness.


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You who sit in Lebanon, and who nest in the cedars, in what way did you mourn when suffering came to you, like the suffering of a woman giving birth?


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As I live, says the Lord, if Jeconiah, the son of Jehoiakim, the king of Judah, were a ring on my right hand, I would remove him from there.


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And I will deliver you into the hand of those who seek your life, and into the hand of those whose face you dread, and into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, and into the hand of the Chaldeans.


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And I will send you, and your mother who conceived you, into a foreign land, in which you were not born, and there you shall die.


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And to the land about which they lift up their mind, thinking to return there, they shall not return.


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Is this man, Jeconiah, a broken earthenware vessel? Is he a vessel which is entirely unpleasing? Why have they been cast out, he and his offspring, cast out even into a land that they have not known?


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Thus says the Lord: Write: this man is barren; he is a man who will not prosper in his days. For there will not be a man from among his offspring who will sit upon the throne of David, or have authority in Judah, anymore.”


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Because of this, thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, to the shepherds who pasture my people: You have scattered my flock, and you have driven them away, and you have not visited them. Behold, I will visit upon you because of your evil pursuits, says the Lord.


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And I will gather together the remnant of my flock from the entire earth, from the places to which I had cast them out. And I will return them to their own fields. And they will increase and be multiplied.


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And I will raise up shepherds over them, and they will pasture them. They will no longer dread, and they will no longer fear. And no one among their number will be seeking more, says the Lord.


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Behold, the days are approaching, says the Lord, when I will raise up to David a righteous branch. And a king will reign, and he will be wise. And he will exercise judgment and justice upon the earth.


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In those days, Judah will be saved, and Israel will live in confidence. And this is the name that they will call him: ‘The Lord, our Just One.’


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Because of this, behold, the days are approaching, says the Lord, when they will no longer say, ‘As the Lord lives, who led the sons of Israel away from the land of Egypt,’


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but instead, ‘As the Lord lives, who led away and brought back the offspring of the house of Israel from the land of the north and from the entire earth,’ from the places to which I had cast them out. And they will live in their own land.”


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To the prophets: “My heart is crushed within me. All my bones are trembling. I have become like an inebriated man, and like a man maddened by wine, before the face of the Lord, and before the face of his holy words.


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For the earth is full of adulterers! And the earth has mourned before the face of evil talk. The plains of the desert have dried up, and their course has become hazardous, and their firmness has become uneven.”


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“For both the prophet and the priest have become polluted, and I have found their wickedness within my own house, says the Lord.


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For this reason, their way will be like a slippery path in the dark. For they will be impelled forward, and they will fall in it. For I will bring evils over them, in the year of their visitation, says the Lord.


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And I have seen the foolishness of the prophets of Samaria. They have prophesied in Baal, and they have deceived my people Israel.


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And in the prophets of Jerusalem, I have seen the likeness of adulterers and the path of falsehood. And they have strengthened the hands of the wicked, so that each one would not convert from his malice. They have all become to me like Sodom, and its inhabitants have become like Gomorrah.”


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Because of this, thus says the Lord of hosts to the prophets: “Behold, I will feed them absinthe, and I will give them gall to drink. For from the prophets of Jerusalem corruption has gone forth over the entire earth.”


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Thus says the Lord of hosts: “Do not choose to listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you and deceive you. They speak a vision from their own heart, and not from the mouth of the Lord.


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To those who blaspheme me, they say: ‘The Lord has said: You shall have peace.’ And to every one who walks in the depravity of his own heart, they have said: ‘No evil will overwhelm you.’ ”


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For who has been present in the counsel of the Lord, and who has seen and heard his word? Who has considered his word and heard it?


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Behold, the whirlwind of the Lord’s indignation will go forth, and a tempest will break out; it will overwhelm the head of the impious.


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The fury of the Lord will not return until it succeeds, and until it completes the plan of his heart. In the last days, you will understand this counsel.


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“I did not send these prophets, yet they hurry forward. I was not speaking to them, yet they were prophesying.


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If they had stood in my counsel, and if I had made my words known to my people, certainly I would have turned them away from their evil ways and from their most wicked plans.


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If a man is hidden in concealed places, do I not see him, says the Lord? Do I not fill up heaven and earth, says the Lord?


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I have heard what the prophets have said, prophesying falsehoods in my name, and also saying: ‘I have dreamed! I have dreamed!’


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How long will this be in the heart of the prophets who predict what is false, and who prophesy deceptions from their own heart?


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They want to cause my people to forget my name, by means of their dreams, which each of them describes to his neighbor, just as their fathers forgot my name for the sake of Baal.


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The prophet who has had a dream, let him describe the dream. And he who receives my word, let him speak my word in truth. For what has the chaff to do with the wheat, says the Lord?


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Therefore, behold: I am against the prophets, says the Lord, who steal my words, each one from his neighbor.


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Behold, I am against the prophets, says the Lord, who take up their tongues and say: ‘The Lord says it.’


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Behold, I am against the prophets, who dream what is false, says the Lord; who explain and so seduce my people with their falsehoods and with their miracles, though I did not send them, nor did I command them. They have offer nothing beneficial to this people, says the Lord.


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Therefore, if this people, or a prophet, or a priest questions you, saying, ‘What is the burden of the Lord?’ you shall say to them, ‘You are the burden. And certainly I will cast you away, says the Lord.’


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And as for the prophet, and the priest, and the people who say, ‘The burden of the Lord!’ I will visit upon that man and upon his house.


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And then you will speak in this way, each one to his neighbor and to his brother: ‘What has the Lord answered? And what has the Lord said?’


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And the burden of the Lord will be no longer be called to mind. For each one’s own word will be a burden. For you have perverted the words of the living God, of the Lord of hosts, our God.


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And then you will speak in this way to the prophet: ‘What has the Lord answered you? And what has the Lord spoken?’


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But if you say, ‘The burden of the Lord!’ then because of this, thus says the Lord: Since you have spoken this word, ‘The burden of the Lord!’ though I sent to you telling you not to say: ‘The burden of the Lord,’


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because of this, behold, I will take you away, like a burden, and I will forsake you, as well as the city that I gave to you and to your fathers, before my face.


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And I will give you over to an everlasting reproach and an eternal disgrace, which shall never be wiped away into oblivion.”


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The Lord revealed to me, and behold, two baskets full of figs were set before the temple of the Lord, after Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, carried away Jeconiah, the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, and his leaders, and the craftsmen and engravers of Jerusalem, and led them into Babylon.


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One basket had exceedingly good figs, like the figs usually found early in the season, and the other basket had exceedingly bad figs, which could not be eaten because they were so bad.


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And the Lord said to me: “What do you see, Jeremiah?” And I said: “Figs: the good figs are very good, and the bad figs are very bad and cannot be eaten because they are so bad.”


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“Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Just like these good figs, so will I regard as good the captives of Judah, whom I have sent from this place into the land of the Chaldeans.


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And I will set my eyes upon them, so as to be pleased. And I will lead them back into this land. And I will build them up, and I will not tear them down. And I will plant them, and I will not uproot them.


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And I will give them a heart, so that they may know me, that I am the Lord. And they will be my people, and I will be their God. For they shall return to me with their whole heart.


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And just like the very bad figs, which cannot be eaten because they are so bad, thus says the Lord: so will I regard Zedekiah, the king of Judah, and his leaders, and the rest of Jerusalem, those who have remained in this city, and those who are living in the land of Egypt.


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And I will give them over, with upheaval and affliction, to all the kingdoms of the earth: to be a disgrace, and a parable, and a proverb, and a curse in all the places to which I have cast them out.


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And I will send among them the sword, and famine, and pestilence: until they have been worn away from the land, which I gave to them and to their fathers.”


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The word that came to Jeremiah about all the people of Judah, in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, the king of Judah. The same is the first year of Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon.


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And the prophet Jeremiah spoke to all the people of Judah, and to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying:


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“From the thirteenth year of Josiah, the son of Amon, the king of Judah, even until this day, which is the twenty-third year, the word of the Lord has been given to me, and I have spoken to you, rising while it was still night, and speaking, and yet you have not listened.


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And the Lord has sent to you all his servants, the prophets, rising at first light, and sending, and yet you have not listened, and you have not inclined your ears, so that you would hear,


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when he said: Return, each one from his evil way, and from your wicked thoughts. And you shall dwell in the land, which the Lord has given to you and to your fathers, from ancient times and even forever.


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And do not choose to go after strange gods, so that you would serve them and adore them. And do not provoke me to wrath by the works of your hands. And then I will not afflict you.


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And yet you have not listened to me, says the Lord, and so you have provoked me to anger with the works of your hands, to your own harm.”


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behold, I will send for and take all the associates of the north, says the Lord, and Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, my servant, and I will lead them over this land, and over its inhabitants, and over all the nations that are around it. And I will destroy them, and I will set them in the midst of stupor and hissing, and continual desolations.


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And I will perish from them the voice of gladness and the voice of rejoicing, the voice of the groom and the voice of the bride, the sound of the millstone and the light of the lamp.


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And this entire land will be in desolation and in stupor. And all these nations will serve the king of Babylon, for seventy years.


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And when the seventy years have been completed, I will visit their iniquity upon the king of Babylon, and upon that nation, and upon the land of the Chaldeans, says the Lord. And I will set it in continual desolations.


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And I will lead over that land all my words, which I have spoken against it, all that has been written in this book, everything whatsoever that Jeremiah has prophesied against all the nations.


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For they have served them, though these were populous nations and great kings. And I will repay them according to their works and according to the deeds of their hands.”


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For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: “Take the chalice of the wine of this fury from my hand. And you shall cause all the nations, to which I will send you, to drink from it.


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And they will drink, and be stirred up, and become maddened, before the face of the sword that I will send among them.”


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And I received the chalice from the hand of the Lord, and I caused all the nations, to which the Lord has sent me, to drink from it:


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Jerusalem, and the cities of Judah, and its kings, and its leaders, so that I gave them over to desolation, and stupor, and hissing, and a curse, just as it is this day.


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and the entire populace in general: all the kings of the land of the south, and all the kings of the land of the Philistines, and Ashkelon, and Gaza, and Ekron, and the remnant of Ashdod,


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and all the kings of Tyre, and all the kings of Sidon, and the kings of the land of the islands that are across the sea,


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and likewise, all the kings of the north from near to far, each one facing his brother, and all the kingdoms upon the face of the earth, and the king of Sesac: all these shall drink after them.


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And you shall say to them: Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Drink, and be inebriated, and vomit, and fall down. And you shall not rise up before the face the sword that I will send among you.


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And if they refuse to receive the cup from your hand and to drink, you shall say to them: Thus says the Lord of hosts: Certainly, you shall drink!


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For behold, I am beginning to afflict the city in which my name has been invoked, and will you be innocent and immune? You will not be immune! For I will call the sword over all the inhabitants of the earth, says the Lord of hosts.


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And you shall prophesy to them all these words, and you shall say to them: The Lord will roar from on high, and he will utter his voice from his holy habitation. When roaring, he will roar over the place of his beauty. He will call out, like those who chant in rhythm as they trample the grapes, against all the inhabitants of the earth.


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The sound of it will penetrate even to the ends of the earth. For the Lord is entering into judgment with the nations. He himself is entering into judgment with all flesh. I have delivered the impious to the sword, says the Lord.”


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Thus says the Lord of hosts: “Behold, an affliction will go forth from nation to nation, and a great whirlwind will go forth from the ends of the earth.


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And the slain of the Lord will be, on that day, from one end of the earth, even to the other end. They will not be mourned, and they will not be gathered, and they will not be buried. They will lie upon the face of the earth like dung.


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Wail, O shepherds, and cry out! And sprinkle yourselves with ashes, O nobles of the flock! For the days have been completed that lead to your slaughter and your destruction. And you will fall like precious vessels.


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There is a voice of outcry from the shepherds, and a wailing among the nobles among the flock! For the Lord has laid waste to their pastures.


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He has abandoned those he sheltered like a lion. For the earth has become a desolation before the face of the anger of the dove, and before the face of the fury of the Lord.


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In the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, the king of Judah, this word came from the Lord, saying:


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“Thus says the Lord: Stand in the atrium of the house of the Lord, and speak to all the cities of Judah, from which they come to adore in the house of the Lord, all the words that I have commanded you to speak to them. Do not choose to subtract any word.


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So may they hear and be converted, each one from his evil way. And then I may repent of the evil that I plan to do to them because of the wickedness of their pursuits.


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And you shall say to them: Thus says the Lord: If you will not listen to me, so that you walk in my law, which I have given to you,


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so that you listen to the words of my servants, the prophets, whom I have sent to you, who arise while it is still night, and though they give guidance, you do not listen,


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then I will make this house like Shiloh, and I will make this city into a curse for all the nations of the earth.”


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And the priests, and the prophets, and all the people heard Jeremiah speaking these words in the house of the Lord.


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And when Jeremiah had completed speaking all that the Lord had instructed him to speak to all the people, then the priests, and the prophets, and all the people apprehended him, saying: “You shall be put to death.”


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“Why has he prophesied in the name of the Lord, saying: ‘Like Shiloh, so shall this house be,’ and, ‘This city shall be made desolate, even without an inhabitant?’ ” And all the people were gathered together against Jeremiah in the house of the Lord.


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And the leaders of Judah heard these words. And they ascended from the house of the king to the house of the Lord, and they sat at the entrance by the new gate of the house of the Lord.


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And the priests and the prophets spoke to the leaders and to all the people, saying: “A judgment of death is for this man. For he has prophesied against this city, just as you have heard with your own ears.”


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And Jeremiah spoke to all the leaders and to the entire people, saying: “The Lord has sent me to prophesy, about this house and about this city, all the words that you have heard.


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Now, therefore, make your ways and your intentions good, and heed the voice of the Lord your God. And then the Lord will repent of the evil that he has spoken against you.


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Yet truly, know and understand this: if you kill me, you will be bringing innocent blood against yourselves, and against this city and its inhabitants. For in truth, the Lord sent me to you, so as to speak all these words in your hearing.”


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And then the leaders and all the people said to the priests and to the prophets: “There is no judgment of death against this man. For he has spoken to us in the name of the Lord our God.”


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Then some of the elders of the land rose up. And they spoke to the entire assembly of the people, saying:


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“Micah from Moresheth was a prophet in the days of Hezekiah, the king of Judah, and he spoke to all the people of Judah, saying: ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts: Zion will be ploughed like a field. And Jerusalem will be a pile of stones. And the mountain of the house will be like the forests of high places.’


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Did the king of Judah, Hezekiah, with all of Judah, condemn him to death? Did they not fear the Lord, and petition the face of the Lord? And so the Lord repented of the evil that he had spoken against them. Therefore, we are committing a great evil against our own souls.


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Likewise, there was a man prophesying in the name of the Lord: Uriah, the son of Shemaiah, of Kiriath-jearim. And he prophesied against this city and against this land, in accord with all the words of Jeremiah.


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And king Jehoiakim, with all his warriors and leaders, heard these words. And so the king sought to put him to death. And Uriah heard, and was afraid, and fled, and he entered into Egypt.


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And king Jehoiakim sent men into Egypt: Elnathan, the son of Achbor, and the men who went with him into Egypt.


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And they led Uriah out of Egypt. And they brought him to king Jehoiakim, and he struck him down with the sword. And he cast his dead body among the graves of the common people.”


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But the hand of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, was with Jeremiah, so that he would not be delivered into the hands of the people, and so that they would not put him to death.


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In the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, the king of Judah, this word came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying:


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“Thus says the Lord to me: Make bands and chains for yourself. And you shall place them on your neck.


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And you shall send them to the king of Edom, and to the king of Moab, and to the king of the sons of Ammon, and to the king of Tyre, and to the king of Sidon, by the hand of the messengers who came to Jerusalem, to Zedekiah, the king of Judah.


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And you shall instruct them to say to their masters: Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: You shall say these things to your masters:


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I made the earth, and the men and beasts which are upon the face of the earth, by my great strength and by my outstretched arm. And I have given it to whomever it was pleasing in my eyes.


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And now, therefore, I have given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, my servant. Moreover, I have given to him also the beasts of the field, so that they may serve him.


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And all the nations will serve him, and his son, and his son’s son. Many nations and great kings will serve him, until the time arrives for him and his land.


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But the nation or kingdom that will not serve Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, and whoever will not bend his neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, I will visit upon that nation with the sword, and with famine, and with pestilence, says the Lord, until I consume them by his hand.


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Therefore, you should not choose to listen to your own prophets, and diviners, and dreamers, and soothsayers, and sorcerers, who say to you: ‘You shall not serve the king of Babylon.’


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For they prophesy lies to you, so that they may cause you to be far from your own country, and may cast you out, and may cause you to perish.


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Furthermore, the nation which will bend its neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, and which will serve him, I will permit them to remain in their own land, says the Lord. And they will cultivate it, and they will live in it.”


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And I spoke to Zedekiah, the king of Judah, according to all these words, saying: “Subject your necks under the yoke of the king of Babylon, and serve him and his people, and you will live.


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Why should you suffer death, you and your people, by the sword, and famine, and pestilence, just as the Lord has spoken against any nation that refuses to serve the king of Babylon?


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Do not choose to listen to the words of the prophets, saying to you: ‘You will not serve the king of Babylon.’ For they are speaking a lie to you.


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For I have not sent them, says the Lord. And they prophesy falsely in my name, so that they may cast you out, and so that you may perish, both you and the prophets who make predictions for you.”


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I spoke also to the priests and to this people, saying: “Thus says the Lord: Do not choose to listen to the words of your prophets, who prophesy to you, saying: ‘Behold, the vessels of the Lord will now quickly be returned from Babylon.’ For they are prophesying to you a lie.


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Therefore, do not choose to listen to them, but instead, serve the king of Babylon, so that you may live. Why should this city be given over into desolation?


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But if they are prophets, and if the word of the Lord is in them, then let them intercede before the Lord of hosts, so that the vessels that were left behind in the house of the Lord, and in the house of the king of Judah, and in Jerusalem, may not go to Babylon.


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For thus says the Lord of hosts to the pillars, and to the sea of brass, and to the bases, and to the remainder of the vessels that have been left behind in this city,


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which Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, did not take when he carried away Jeconiah, the son of Jehoiakim, the king of Judah, from Jerusalem into Babylon, with all the nobility of Judah and Jerusalem:


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For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to the vessels that were left behind in the house of the Lord and in the house of the king of Judah and Jerusalem:


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They shall be carried away to Babylon, and there they shall be, until the day of their visitation, says the Lord. And then I will cause them to be carried back, and to be restored to this place.


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And it happened in that year, in the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah, the king of Judah, in the fourth year, in the fifth month, that Hananiah, the son of Azur, the prophet from Gibeon, spoke to me, in the house of the Lord, in the sight of the priests and all the people, saying:


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There are still two years of days, and then I will cause to be carried back to this place all the vessels of the house of the Lord that Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, took from this place and carried away to Babylon.


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And I will return to this place: Jeconiah, the son of Jehoiakim, the king of Judah, and all those taken captive from Judah, who were brought into Babylon, says the Lord. For I will crush the yoke of the king of Babylon.”


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And Jeremiah the prophet spoke to Hananiah the prophet, before the eyes of the priests and before the eyes of all the people who were standing in the house of the Lord.


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And Jeremiah the prophet said: “Amen, may the Lord accomplish this; may the Lord act upon your words, which you have prophesied, so that the vessels may be carried back to the house of the Lord, and so that all those taken captive may return from Babylon to this place.


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The prophets, who were before me and before you, from the beginning, have prophesied over many lands and over great kingdoms, about war, and about affliction, and about famine.


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The prophet who has predicted peace, if his word will occur, then the prophet will be known as one whom the Lord has sent in truth.”


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And Hananiah spoke in the sight of all the people, saying: “Thus says the Lord: So shall I break the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, after two years of days, from the neck of all the people.”


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And Jeremiah the prophet went his own way. And after Hananiah the prophet had broken the chain from the neck of Jeremiah the prophet, the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah, saying:


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“Go, and you shall say to Hananiah: Thus says the Lord: You have broken chains of wood, and so you will make for them chains of iron.


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For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: I have placed a yoke of iron on the neck of all these nations, so that they may serve Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon. And they shall serve him. Moreover, I have given to him even the beasts of the earth.”


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And Jeremiah the prophet said to Hananiah the prophet: “Listen, Hananiah! The Lord has not sent you, and so you have caused this people to trust in a lie.


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For this reason, thus says the Lord: Behold, I will send you away from the face of the earth. This year, you shall die. For you have spoken against the Lord.”


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And these are the words of the letter which Jeremiah, the prophet, sent from Jerusalem to the remnant of the elders of the transmigration, and to the priests, and to the prophets, and to all the people, whom Nebuchadnezzar had led away from Jerusalem to Babylon,


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after king Jeconiah, with the queen, and the eunuchs, and the leaders of Judah and of Jerusalem, and the craftsmen and engravers, had departed from Jerusalem.


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It was sent by the hand of Elasah, the son of Shaphan, and by Gemariah, the son of Hilkiah, whom Zedekiah, the king of Judah, sent to Babylon to Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, saying:


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“Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all who have been taken away, whom I have caused to be transferred from Jerusalem to Babylon:


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Take wives, and conceive sons and daughters. And give wives to your sons, and give your daughters to husbands, and let them bear sons and daughters. And be multiplied there, and do not choose to be few in number.


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And seek the peace of the city, to which I have caused you to be taken away, and pray to the Lord on its behalf. For your peace will be in its peace.


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For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Do not allow your prophets and your diviners, who are in your midst, to seduce you. And you should pay no attention to your dreams, which you are dreaming.


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For thus says the Lord: When the seventy years will begin to be completed in Babylon, I will visit you. And I will raise up over you my good word, so that I may lead you back to this place.


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For I know the thoughts that I think over you, says the Lord: thoughts of peace and not of affliction, so that I may give you patience and an end.


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And I will be found by you, says the Lord. And I will lead you back from your captivity. And I will gather you from all the nations and all the places, to which I have expelled you, says the Lord. And I will return you from the place to which I sent you into captivity.


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For thus says the Lord, to the king who sits upon the throne of David, and to all the people who live in this city, to your brothers who have not departed with you in the transmigration:


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Thus says the Lord of hosts: Behold, I will send among them the sword, and famine, and pestilence. And I will make them like the bad figs, which cannot be eaten, because they are very bad.


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And I will pursue them with the sword, and with famine, and with pestilence. And I will give them over to affliction, amid all the kingdoms of the earth: as a curse, and in stupor, and with hissing, and as a disgrace among all the nations to which I have driven them out.


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For they have not listened to my words, says the Lord, which I sent to them through my servants, the prophets, rising while it was still night, and sending. But you have not listened, says the Lord.


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Therefore, listen to the word of the Lord, all you of the transmigration, whom I have sent away from Jerusalem into Babylon.


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Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to Ahab, the son of Kolaiah, and to Zedekiah, the son of Maaseiah, who prophesy falsely to you in my name: Behold, I will deliver them into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, and he will strike them down before your eyes.


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And a curse will be taken up about them, by all the captives of Judah that are in Babylon, saying: ‘May the Lord make you like Zedekiah, and like Ahab, whom the king of Babylon fried in the fire!’


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For they have acted foolishly in Israel, and they have committed adultery with the wives of their friends, and they have spoken lying words in my name, which I did not command them. I am the Judge and the Witness, says the Lord.


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Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Similarly, you have sent letters in your name to all the people that are in Jerusalem, and to Zephaniah, the son of Maaseiah, the priest, and to all the priests, saying:


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‘The Lord has made you priest in place of Jehoiada, the priest, so that you would be the ruler in the house of the Lord over every man who raves and prophesies, to send him to the stocks and to prison.


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For about this, he has sent to us in Babylon, saying: It is a long time. Build houses and live in them. And plant gardens, and eat from their fruits.’ ”


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“Send to all those of the transmigration, saying: Thus says the Lord to Shemaiah of Nehelam: Because Shemaiah has prophesied to you, though I did not send him, and because he has caused you to trust in a lie:


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For this reason, thus says the Lord: Behold, I will visit upon Shemaiah of Nehelam, and upon his offspring. There will not be, for him, even one man sitting in the midst of this people. And he will not see the good that I will accomplish for my people, says the Lord. For he has spoken a betrayal against the Lord.”


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“Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, saying: You shall write in a book all the words that I have spoken to you.


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For behold, the days are approaching, says the Lord, when I will convert the turning away of my people, Israel and Judah, says the Lord. And I will return them to the land which I gave to their fathers, and they will possess it.”


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Inquire and see, does a male give birth? Then why have I seen every man with his hand on his lower back, like a woman bearing a child? And why have all of their faces turned pale?


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Woe! For that day is great, and there is nothing like it. For it is the time of tribulation for Jacob, but he will be saved from it.


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And this shall be in that day, says the Lord of hosts: I will crush his yoke from your neck, and I will break open his bands. And strangers will no longer rule over him.


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Therefore, O my servant Jacob, you should not be afraid, says the Lord, and you should not be frightened, O Israel. For behold, I will save you from a far away land, and your offspring from the land of their captivity. And Jacob will return and have rest, and he shall flow with every good thing. And there will be no one for him to dread.


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For I am with you, says the Lord, so that I may save you. For I will bring about the consummation of all the nations, among which I have scattered you. But I will not bring about your consummation. Instead, I will chastise you in judgment, so that you will not seem innocent to yourself.”


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There is no one who may judge your judgment, so as to bandage it; there is no useful treatment for you.


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All your lovers have forgotten you, and they will not seek you. For I have wounded you with the strike of an enemy, with a cruel chastisement. Your sins have become hardened because of the multitude of your iniquities.


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Why do you cry out over your affliction? Your pain is incurable. I have done these things to you because of the multitude of your iniquity and because of your hardened sins.


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Because of this, all those who devour you, will be devoured. And all your enemies will be led into captivity. And those who devastate you, will be devastated. And all those who prey upon you, I will offer as a prey.


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For I will close up your scar, and I will heal you of your wounds, says the Lord. For they have called you an outcast, O Zion: ‘This is she who has no one asking for her.’ ”


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Thus says the Lord: “Behold, I will turn back the turning away of the tabernacles of Jacob, and I will take pity on his roofs. And the city will be built up in her heights, and the temple will be founded according to its order.


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And praise will go forth from them, with the voice of those who play. And I will multiply them, and they will not be lessened. And I will glorify them, and they will not be weakened.


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And their sons will be as in the beginning. And their assembly will remain in my sight. And I will visit against all those who trouble them.


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And their ruler will one of their own. And their prince will be led forward from their midst. And I will draw him near, and he will cling to me. For who is the one who applies his heart, so that he may draw near to me, says the Lord?


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Behold the whirlwind of the Lord, his fury going forth, a destroying storm! It will rest upon the head of the impious.


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The Lord will not turn back the wrath of his indignation, until he has accomplished and completed the plan of his heart. In the last days, you shall understand these things.


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“In that time, says the Lord, I will be the God of all the families of Israel, and they will be my people.”


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Thus says the Lord: “The people who had remained after the sword, found grace in the desert. Israel will go to his rest.”


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The Lord appeared to me from a distance: “And I have loved you in perpetual charity. Therefore, showing pity, I have drawn you.


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And I will build you up again. And you shall be built up, O virgin of Israel. Still shall you be adorned with your timbrels, and still shall you go forth to the singing of those who play.


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Still shall you plant vineyards on the mountains of Samaria. The planters will plant, and they will not gather the vintage until the time arrives.


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For there will be a day on which the guardians on mount Ephraim will cry out: ‘Arise! And let us ascend on Zion to the Lord our God!’ ”


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For thus says the Lord: “Exult in the joy of Jacob, and neigh before the head of the Gentiles. Shout, and sing, and say: ‘O Lord, save your people, the remnant of Israel!’


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Behold, I will lead them from the land of the north, and I will gather them from the ends of the earth. Among them will be the blind and the lame, she who is with child, together with she who is giving birth: a great assembly returning to this place.


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They will approach with weeping. And I will lead them back with mercy. And I will lead them through the torrents of water, by an upright way, and they will not stumble in it. For I have become Father to Israel, and Ephraim is my firstborn.”


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Listen to the word of the Lord, O Gentiles, and announce it amid the islands that are far away, and say: “Whoever has scattered Israel will gather him, and he will guard him as a shepherd guards his flock.”


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And they will arrive and give praise on Mount Zion. And they will flow together, to the good things of the Lord, over grain, and wine, and oil, and the offspring of cattle and herds. And their soul will be like an irrigated garden, and they will no longer be hungry.


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Then the virgin will rejoice with singing, the young and the old together, and I will turn their mourning into gladness, and I will console them and gladden them after their sorrow.


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And I will inebriate the soul of the priests with fatness, and my people will be filled with my good things, says the Lord.”


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Thus says the Lord: “A voice has been heard on high: of lamentation, mourning, and weeping; of Rachel crying for her sons and refusing to be consoled over them, because they are not.”


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Thus says the Lord: “Let your voice cease from crying and your eyes from tears. For there is a reward for your work, says the Lord. And they will return from the land of the enemy.


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Listening, I heard Ephraim going into captivity: ‘You have chastised me, and I was instructed, like a young untamed bull. Convert me, and I shall be converted. For you are the Lord my God.


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For after you converted me, I did penance. And after you revealed to me, I struck my thigh. I am confounded and ashamed. For I have endured the disgrace of my youth.’


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Certainly, Ephraim is an honorable son to me; surely, he is a tender child. For I will still remember him, as in the time when I first spoke about him. Because my heart is stirred up over him, surely I will take pity on him, says the Lord.


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Establish a watchtower for yourself. Place yourself in bitterness. Direct your heart into the upright way, in which you used to walk. Return, return, O virgin of Israel, to these your cities!


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How long will you be absorbed in delights, O wandering daughter? For the Lord has created something new upon the earth: a woman will encompass a man.”


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Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: “Still they will speak this word in the land of Judah, and in its cities, when I will convert their captivity: ‘May the Lord bless you, the beauty of justice, the holy mountain.’


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And they will live in it: Judah together with all its cities, the farmer and those who drive the flocks.


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Behold, the days are approaching, says the Lord, when I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the offspring of men and with the offspring of cattle.


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And just as I have watched over them, so that I may root up, and tear down, and scatter, and destroy, and afflict, so will I watch over them, so that I may build and plant them, says the Lord.


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In those days, they will no longer say: ‘The fathers ate a bitter grape, and the teeth of the sons have been affected.’


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Instead, each one will die for his own iniquity. Each man who will have eaten a bitter grape, his own teeth will be affected.


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Behold, the days are approaching, says the Lord, when I will form a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah,


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not according to the covenant which I made with their fathers, in the day when I took them by the hand, so as to lead them away from the land of Egypt, the covenant which they nullified, though I was the ruler over them, says the Lord.


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But this will be the covenant that I will form with the house of Israel, after those days, says the Lord: I will give my law to their inner most being, and I will write it upon their heart. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people.


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And they will no longer teach, a man his neighbor, and a man his brother, saying: ‘Know the Lord.’ For all will know me, from the littlest of them even to the greatest, says the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will no longer remember their sin.


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Thus says the Lord, who gives the sun as the light of the day, who puts the moon and the stars in order as the light of the night, who stirs up the sea and makes its waves roar: the Lord of hosts is his name.


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If these laws fail in my sight, says the Lord, then the offspring of Israel will also fail, so that they will not be a people in my sight for all time.”


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Thus says the Lord: “If the heavens above are able to be measured, and if the foundations of the earth beneath can be examined, I also will cast aside all the offspring of Israel, because of all that they have done, says the Lord.


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Behold, the days are approaching, says the Lord, when a city will be built for the Lord from the tower of Hananel, even to the Gate of the Corner;


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and the measuring line will go on even further in his sight, over the hill of Gareb, and it will encircle Goah


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and the entire Valley of dead bodies and ashes, and the entire region of death, even to the torrent of Kedron, and to the corner of the Horse Gate to the east. All this will be the holy place of the Lord. It will not be rooted up, and it will not be torn down, anymore, forever.”


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The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord in the tenth year of Zedekiah, the king of Judah. The same is the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar.


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It was then that the army of the king of Babylon besieged Jerusalem. And Jeremiah, the prophet, was confined to the atrium of the prison, which was in the house of the king of Judah.


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For Zedekiah, the king of Judah, had confined him, saying: “Why do you make predictions, saying: ‘Thus says the Lord: Behold, I will give this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he will capture it?


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And Zedekiah, the king of Judah, will not escape from the hand of the Chaldeans. Instead, he will be delivered into the hands of the king of Babylon. And he will speak to him, mouth to mouth, and he will see him, eye to eye.


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And he will lead Zedekiah to Babylon. And he will be there until I visit him, says the Lord. So then, if you contend against the Chaldeans, you will have no success.’ ”


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Behold, Hanamel, the son of Shallum, your cousin, will come to you, saying: ‘Buy for yourself my field, which is in Anathoth. For it is your right, as next of kin, to buy it.’


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And in accord with the word of the Lord, Hanamel, the son of my uncle, came to me, to the entrance of the prison, and he said to me: ‘Take possession of my field, which is in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin. For the right of inheritance is yours, and as the next of kin you may possess it.’ Then I understood that this was the word of the Lord.


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And I bought the field, which is in Anathoth, from Hanamel, the son of my uncle. And I weighed out the money to him, seven small coins and ten pieces of silver.


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And I wrote it in a book and signed it, and I summoned witnesses. And I weighed out the silver on a scale.


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And I received the signed deed of possession, and the stipulations, and the ratifications, with the exterior seals.


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And I gave the deed of possession to Baruch, the son of Neriah, the son of Mahseiah, in the sight of Hanamel, the son of my uncle, in the sight of the witnesses who had been recorded in the book of the purchase, and in the sight of all the Jews who were sitting in the atrium of the prison.


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Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: ‘Take these writings, this sealed deed of purchase, and this deed which is open, and place them in an earthen vessel, so that they will be preserved for many days.’


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For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: ‘Houses, and fields, and vineyards will be possessed still, in this land.’


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And after I had delivered the deed of possession to Baruch, the son of Neri, I prayed to the Lord, saying:


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Alas, alas, alas, O Lord God! Behold, you have made heaven and earth, by your great strength and by your outstretched arm. No word is difficult for you.


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You act with mercy a thousand-fold, but you repay the iniquity of the fathers into the sinews of their sons after them. The Lord of hosts is your name: most strong, great, and powerful!


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You are great in counsel and incomprehensible in thought. Your eyes are open upon all the ways of the sons of Adam, so that you may repay each one according to his ways and according to the fruit of his intentions.


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You caused signs and portents in the land of Egypt, and in Israel, and among men, even until this day. And you have made a name for yourself, just as in this day.


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And you have led your people Israel away from the land of Egypt, with signs and portents, and with a robust hand and an outstretched arm, and with great terror.


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And you have given them this land, which you swore, to their fathers, that you would give to them, a land flowing with milk and honey.


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And they entered it and possessed it. But they did not obey your voice, and they did not walk in your law. And they did not do all of the things that you commanded them to do. And so, all of these evils have happened to them.


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Behold, fortifications were built against the city, so as to capture it. And the city was given into the hands of the Chaldeans, who fight against it, before the face of the sword, and of famine, and of pestilence. And what you have spoken has occurred, just as you yourself discern.


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So why, O Lord God, are you saying to me: ‘Buy a field with money, and summon witnesses,’ while the city is being given into the hands of the Chaldeans?”


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Therefore, thus says the Lord: Behold, I will deliver this city into the hands of the Chaldeans, and into the hands of the king of Babylon, and they will capture it.


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And the Chaldeans fighting against this city will advance, and set fire to it, and burn it, along with the houses on whose roofs they were offering sacrifice to Baal and were pouring out libations to strange gods, so that they provoked me to wrath.


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For the sons of Israel and the sons of Judah, from their youth, have continually done evil in my eyes. The sons of Israel, even until now, have been provoking me with the work of their hands, says the Lord.


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For this city has been a cause of fury and indignation to me, from the day when they built it, until this day, in which it will be taken away from my sight,


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because of all the wickedness of the sons of Israel and the sons of Judah, which they have done, provoking me to wrath, they and their kings, their leaders and their priests and their prophets, the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem.


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And they have turned their backs to me, and not their faces. And though I taught them and instructed them, rising at first light, they were not willing to listen, so that they would receive discipline.


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And they have built the exalted places of Baal, which are in the valley of the son of Hinnom, so that they may initiate their sons and their daughters into Molech, though I did not command, nor did it enter into my heart, that they should do this abomination, and so lead Judah into sin.


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And now, because of these things, thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, to this city, about which you say that it will be delivered into the hands of the king of Babylon by the sword, and by famine, and by pestilence:


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Behold, I will gather them together from all the lands to which I have cast them out in my fury, and in my wrath, and in my great indignation. And I will lead them back to this place, and I will cause them to live in confidence.


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And I will give to them one heart and one way, so that they may fear me all their days, and so that it may be well with them, and with their sons after them.


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And I will form an everlasting covenant with them, and I will not cease to do good for them. And I will put my fear into their heart, so that they do not withdraw from me.


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And I will rejoice over them, while I do good for them. And I will plant them in this land, in truth, with my whole heart and with my whole soul.


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For thus says the Lord: Just as I have led over this people all this great evil, so will I lead over them all the good that I am speaking to them now.


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And fields will be possessed in this land, about which you say that it is desolate because there remains neither man nor beast, and because it has been given into the hands of the Chaldeans.


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Fields will be bought for money, and deeds will be written and signed, and witnesses will be summoned, in the land of Benjamin and all around Jerusalem, in the cities of Judah, and in the cities on the mountains, and in the cities on the plains, and in the cities that are toward the south. For I will convert their captivity, says the Lord.”


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And the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah a second time, while he was still confined to the atrium of the prison, saying:


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Cry out to me and I will heed you. And I will announce to you great things, things that are certain, though you do not know them.


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For thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, to the houses of this city, and to the houses of the king of Judah, which have been destroyed, and to the fortifications, and to the sword


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of those who have arrived, so that they may fight with the Chaldeans, and so that they may have their fill of the dead bodies of the men whom I have struck down in my fury and in my indignation, concealing my face from this city, because of all their wickedness:


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Behold, I will lead over them scars and health, and I will cure them. And I will reveal to them an invocation of peace and truth.


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And I will convert the turning away of Judah and the turning away of Jerusalem. And I will build them up, just as from the beginning.


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And I will cleanse them from all their iniquity, by which they have sinned against me. And I will forgive all their iniquities, by which they have offended against me and have despised me.


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And this will be for me: a name, and a joy, and a praise, and an exultation, among all the nations of the earth who will hear about all the good things that I will accomplish for them. And they will be afraid and troubled over all these good things, and over all the peace, that I will accomplish for them.


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Thus says the Lord: Still shall there be heard in this place, (which you say is desolate, because there is neither man nor beast,) and in the cities of Judah and outside of Jerusalem, (which are desolate, without man, and without an inhabitant and without cattle,)


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the voice of gladness and the voice of rejoicing, the voice of the groom and the voice of the bride, the voice of those who will say: ‘Confess to the Lord of hosts! For the Lord is good! For his mercy is eternal!’ and the voice of those fulfilling their vows in the house of the Lord. For I will lead back the turning away of the land, just as from the beginning, says the Lord.”


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Thus says the Lord of hosts: “Still shall there be in this place, (which is desolate without man and without beast,) and in all of its cities: a habitation for the shepherds giving rest to their flocks.


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For even in the cities on the mountains, and in the cities on the plains, and in the cities that are toward the south, and in the land of Benjamin, and all around Jerusalem, and in the cities of Judah, still shall the flocks travel by the hand of him who numbers them, says the Lord.


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Behold, the days are approaching, says the Lord, when I will fulfill the good word that I have spoken to the house of Israel and to the house of Judah.


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In those days and at that time, I will cause the seedling of justice to spring up from David, and he will accomplish judgment and justice upon the earth.


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In those days, Judah will be saved, and Jerusalem will live in confidence. And this is the name that they will call him: ‘The Lord, our Just One.’


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For thus says the Lord: There shall not cease to be a man from David sitting upon the throne of the house of Israel.


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And there shall not cease to be a man from the priests and from the Levites before my face, who offers holocausts, and burns sacrifices, and kills victims, for days without end.”


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“Thus says the Lord: If my covenant with the day is able to be nullified, or my covenant with the night, such that there would be no day and no night in their time,


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then, too, my covenant with David, my servant, may be nullified, such that he would not have a son who reigns upon his throne, with both the Levites and the priests as my ministers.


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Just as the stars of heaven are not able to be numbered, and the sand of the sea is not able to be measured, so will I multiply the offspring of David, my servant, and the Levites, my ministers.”


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“Have you not seen what this people has spoken? They say: ‘The two families which the Lord had chosen have been rejected.’ And so they have despised my people, as if they were no longer a nation in their sight.


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Thus says the Lord: If I have not established my covenant with the day and the night, and my laws over heaven and earth,


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then truly I will also cast aside the offspring of Jacob, and of David, my servant, so that I do not take up any of his offspring to be leaders over the offspring of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. For I will lead back their turning way, and I will take pity on them.”


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The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, when Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, and his entire army, and all the kingdoms of the earth that were under the authority of his hand, and all the people were making war against Jerusalem and against all of its cities, saying:


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“Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Go, and speak to Zedekiah, the king of Judah. And you shall say to him: Thus says the Lord: Behold, I will deliver this city into the hands of the king of Babylon, and he will burn it with fire.


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And you will not escape from his hand. Instead, you will be overtaken and captured, and you will be delivered into his hand. And your eyes will see the eyes of the king of Babylon, and his mouth will speak with your mouth, and you will enter into Babylon.


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Even so, listen to the word of the Lord, Zedekiah, king of Judah: Thus says the Lord to you: You will not die by the sword.


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Instead, you will die in peace. And, in accord with the burnings of your fathers, the former kings who were before you, so will they burn you. And they will mourn you, saying: ‘Alas, lord!’ For I have spoken the word, says the Lord.”


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And the army of the king of Babylon fought against Jerusalem and against all the cities of Judah that remained, against Lachish and against Azekah. For only these remained out of the cities of Judah that were fortified cities.


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The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, after king Zedekiah had struck a pact with all the people in Jerusalem, proclaiming


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that each one should release his man servant, and each one his woman servant, as a free Hebrew man and a free Hebrew woman, and that they should never be rulers over them, that is, over the Jews, their own brothers.


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Then all the leaders and all the people who entered into the pact, heard that each one should release his man servant, and each one his woman servant, to be free, and that they should no longer rule over them. Therefore, they listened, and they released them.


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But later on, they turned back. And they took back again their man servants and their woman servants, whom they had released to be free. And they subjugated them as male and female servants.


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“Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: I struck a pact with your fathers in the day when I led them away from the land of Egypt, from the house of servitude, saying:


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‘When seven years have been completed, let each one release his brother, a Hebrew, who had been sold to him. And so he will serve you for six years, and then you shall release him to be free from you.’ But your fathers did not listen to me, nor did they incline their ear.


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And today you converted, and you did what is right in my eyes, so that you proclaimed liberty, each one to his friend. And you entered into a pact in my sight, in the house in which and over which my name is invoked.


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But now you have turned back, and you have stained my name. For you have led back again, each one his man servant, and each one his woman servant, whom you had released so that they would be free and under their own authority. And you have subjugated them, so that they would be your servants and handmaids.”


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Because of this, thus says the Lord: “You have not heeded me, though you proclaimed liberty, each one to his brother and each one to his friend. Behold, I am proclaiming a liberty for you, says the Lord, to the sword, to pestilence, and to famine. And I will cause you to be removed to all the kingdoms of the earth.


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And I will give over the men who have betrayed my covenant, and who have not observed the words of the covenant, to which they assented in my sight when they cut the calf into two parts and passed between its parts:


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the leaders of Judah, and the leaders of Jerusalem, the eunuchs and the priests, and all the people of the land, who have passed between the parts of the calf.


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And I will give them into the hands of their enemies and into the hands of those who are seeking their life. And their dead bodies will be food for the birds of the air and for the beasts of the earth.


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And Zedekiah, the king of Judah, and his leaders, I will give over to the hands of their enemies, and to the hands of those who are seeking their lives, and to the hands of the armies of the king of Babylon, which had withdrawn from you.


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Behold, I will command, says the Lord, and I will lead them back to this city, and they will fight against it, and seize it, and set it on fire. And I will make the cities of Judah into a desolation, for there shall be no inhabitant.”


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The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord in the days of Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, the king of Judah, saying:


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“Go to the house of the Rechabites, and speak to them, and lead them into the house of the Lord, into one of the halls of the treasuries. And you shall give them wine to drink.”


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And so I took Jaazaniah, the son of Jeremiah, the son of Habazziniah, and his brothers, and all his sons, and the entire house of the Rechabites,


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and I led them into the house of the Lord, to the treasury of the sons of Hanan, the son of Igdaliah, a man of God, which was near the treasury of the princes, above the storehouse of Maaseiah, the son of Shallum, who was the guardian of the entrance.


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And I placed before the sons of the house of the Rechabites bowls filled with wine, and chalices. And I said to them, “Drink wine.”


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And they responded: “We will not drink wine. For Jonadab, the son of Rechab, our father, instructed us, saying: ‘You shall not drink wine, you and your sons, in perpetuity.


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And you shall not build houses, and you shall not sow any seeds, and you shall not plant or have vineyards. Instead, you shall live in tents all your days, so that you may live many days upon the face of the earth, in which you are sojourners.’


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Therefore, we have obeyed the voice of Jonadab, the son of Rechab, our father, in all that he has commanded us, so that we do not drink wine all our days, we and our wives, our sons and daughters.


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Instead, we live in tents, and we have been obedient in accord with all that Jonadab, our father, has instructed us.


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But when Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, had ascended to our land, we said: ‘Come and let us enter into Jerusalem, before the face of the army of the Chaldeans, and before the face of the army of Syria.’ And we have remained in Jerusalem.”


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“Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Go, and say to the men of Judah and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem: Will you not accept discipline, so that you obey my words, says the Lord?


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The words of Jonadab, the son of Rechab, in which he instructed his sons, so that they would not drink wine, have prevailed. And they have not drunk wine, even to this day. For they have obeyed the instruction of their father. But I have spoken to you, rising and speaking from early morning, and you did not obey me.


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And I have sent to you all my servants, the prophets, rising at first light, and sending, and saying: ‘Convert, each one from his wicked way, and make your intentions good. And do not choose to follow strange gods, nor shall you worship them. And then you shall live in the land which I gave to you and to your fathers.’ And yet you have not inclined your ear, and you have not heeded me.


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So the sons of Jonadab, the son of Rechab, have remained firm in the commandment of their father, which he instructed to them, while this people has not been obedient to me.


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For this reason, thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will lead over Judah and over all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, every evil that I have declared against them. For I have spoken to them, and they have not listened. I have called to them, and they have not responded to me.”


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Then Jeremiah said to the house of the Rechabites: “Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Because you have obeyed the commandment of Jonadab, your father, and have kept all his precepts, and have done all that he has instructed you,


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because of this, thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: There will not be a man lacking from the stock of Jonadab, the son of Rechab, standing in my sight, for all days.”


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And it happened in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, the king of Judah: it happened that this word came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying:


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“Take the volume of a book, and you shall write in it all the words that I have spoken to you against Israel and Judah, and against all the nations, from the day when I first spoke to you, from the days of Josiah, even to this day.


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Perhaps it may be that the house of Judah, upon hearing all the evils that I have decided to do to them, may return, each one from his wicked way, and then I will forgive their iniquity and their sin.”


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Therefore, Jeremiah called Baruch, the son of Neriah, and Baruch wrote, from the mouth of Jeremiah, all the words of the Lord, which he had spoken to him, in the volume of a book.


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And Jeremiah instructed Baruch, saying: “I am confined, and so I am unable to enter into the house of the Lord.


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Therefore, you shall enter and read from the volume, in which you have written from my mouth the words of the Lord, in the hearing of the people in the house of the Lord on the day of the fast. Moreover, you shall also read them in the hearing of all those of Judah who are arriving from their cities.


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Perhaps it may happen that they pray in the sight of the Lord, and each one may return from his wicked way. For great is the fury and indignation that the Lord has declared against this people.”


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And Baruch, the son of Neriah, acted in accord with all that Jeremiah, the prophet, had instructed him, reading from the volume the words of the Lord, in the house of the Lord.


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And it happened that, in the fifth year of Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, the king of Judah, in the ninth month, they proclaimed a fast, in the sight of the Lord, to all the people in Jerusalem, and to the entire multitude which had flowed together, from the cities of Judah, into Jerusalem.


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And Baruch read from the volume the words of Jeremiah in the house of the Lord, at the treasury of Gemariah, the son of Shaphan, the scribe, in the upper vestibule, at the entrance to the new gate of the house of the Lord, in the hearing of all the people.


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And when Micaiah, the son of Gemariah, the son of Shaphan, had heard all the words of the Lord from the book,


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he descended to the house of the king, to the treasury of the scribe. And behold, all the leaders were sitting there: Elishama, the scribe, and Delaiah, the son of Shemaiah, and Elnathan, the son of Achbor, and Gemariah, the son of Shaphan, and Zedekiah, the son of Hananiah, and all the leaders.


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And Micaiah announced to them all the words that he had heard when Baruch read from the volume to the ears of the people.


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And so, all the leaders sent Jehudi, the son of Nethaniah, the son of Shelemiah, the son of Cushi, to Baruch, saying, “Take in your hand the volume, from which you have read in the hearing of the people, and come.” Therefore, Baruch, the son of Neriah, took the volume in his hand, and he went to them.


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Therefore, when they had heard all the words, each one looked at his neighbor in astonishment, and they said to Baruch: “We ought to report all these words to the king.”


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Then Baruch said to them: “He was speaking with his mouth, as if reading to me. And I wrote in a volume with ink.”


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And the leaders said to Baruch: “Go away and hide, you and Jeremiah, and let no one know where you are.”


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And they entered to the king, in the court. Furthermore, they stored the volume in the treasury of Elishama, the scribe. And they announced all the words in the hearing of the king.


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And the king sent Jehudi to take the volume. And bringing it from the treasury of Elishama, the scribe, he read it in the hearing of the king and of all the leaders who were standing around the king.


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Now the king was sitting in the winter house, in the ninth month. And there was a hearth placed before him, filled with burning coals.


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And when Jehudi had read three or four pages, he cut it with a small knife, and he threw it into the fire which was upon the hearth, until the entire volume was consumed by the fire which was upon the hearth.


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And the king and all his servants, who had heard all these words, were not afraid, and they did not rend their garments.


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Yet truly, Elnathan, and Delaiah, and Gemariah contradicted the king, so that he might not burn the book. But he did not listen to them.


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And the king instructed Jerahmeel, the son of Amelech, and Seraiah, the son of Azriel, and Shelemiah, the son of Abdeel, so that they would apprehend Baruch, the scribe, and Jeremiah, the prophet. But the Lord concealed them.


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And after the king had burned the volume and the words that Baruch had written from the mouth of Jeremiah, the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah, the prophet, saying:


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“Again, take another volume and write in it all the former words, which were in the first volume that Jehoiakim, the king of Judah, has burned.


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And you shall say to Jehoiakim, the king of Judah: Thus says the Lord: You have burned that volume, saying: ‘Why have you written in it, announcing that the king of Babylon will advance quickly, and will devastate this land, and will cause both man and beast to cease from it?’


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Because of this, thus says the Lord against Jehoiakim, the king of Judah: There will be, from him, no one who may sit upon the throne of David. And his dead body shall be cast out: to the heat by day, and to the frost by night.


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And I will visit against him, and against his offspring, and against his servants for their iniquities. And I will lead over them, and over the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and over the men of Judah, all the evil that I have declared against them, for they have not listened.”


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Then Jeremiah took up another volume, and he gave it to Baruch, the son of Neriah, the scribe, who wrote in it, from the mouth of Jeremiah, all the words of the book that Jehoiakim, the king of Judah, had burned with fire. And moreover, there were many more words added than there had been before.


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And then king Zedekiah, the son of Josiah, reigned in place of Jeconiah, the son of Jehoiakim. For Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, appointed him as king in the land of Judah.


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And neither he himself, nor his servants, nor the people of the land, obeyed the words of the Lord, which he spoke by the hand of Jeremiah, the prophet.


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And king Zedekiah sent Jehucal, the son of Shelemiah, and Zephaniah, the son of Maaseiah, the priest, to Jeremiah the prophet, saying: “Pray to the Lord our God for us.”


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Now Jeremiah was walking freely in the midst of the people. For they had not yet sent him into the custody of the prison. And then the army of Pharaoh went forth from Egypt. And hearing this, the Chaldeans, who were besieging Jerusalem, withdrew from Jerusalem.


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“Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: So shall you say to the king of Judah, who sent you to question me: Behold, the army of Pharaoh, which has gone forth in assistance to you, will return to their own land, into Egypt.


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And the Chaldeans will return and will make war against this city. And they will seize it and burn it with fire.


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Thus says the Lord: Do not be willing to deceive your own souls, saying: ‘The Chaldeans will certainly withdraw and go away from us.’ For they will not go away.


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But even if you were to strike down the entire army of the Chaldeans who are fighting against you, and if there were left behind from among them only a few wounded men, they would rise up, each one from his tent, and they would burn this city with fire.”


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Jeremiah went forth from Jerusalem, to go into the land of Benjamin, and to distribute a possession there, in the sight of the citizens.


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And when he had arrived at the gate of Benjamin, the keeper of the gate, whose turn it was to be there, was named Irijah, the son of Shelemiah, the son of Hananiah. And he apprehended Jeremiah the prophet, saying, “You are fleeing to the Chaldeans.”


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And Jeremiah responded: “That is false. I am not fleeing to the Chaldeans.” But he did not listen to him. And so Irijah took Jeremiah, and he brought him to the leaders.


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Therefore, the leaders were angry with Jeremiah, and so they beat him and sent him to the prison that was in the house of Jonathan, the scribe. For he was the chief over the prison.


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And so Jeremiah went into the house of the prison and into a dungeon. And Jeremiah sat there for many days.


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Then Zedekiah the king, sending, took him out and questioned him secretly in his house, and he said: “Do you think that there is any word from the Lord?” And Jeremiah said: “There is.” And he said: “You will be delivered into the hands of the king of Babylon.”


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And Jeremiah said to king Zedekiah: “How have I sinned against you, or your servants, or your people, such that you would cast me into a house of imprisonment?


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Where are your prophets, who were prophesying to you, and who were saying: ‘The king of Babylon will not overwhelm you and this land?’


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Now therefore, listen, I beg you, my lord the king. Let my petition prevail in your sight. And do not send me back into the house of Jonathan the scribe, lest I die there.”


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Then king Zedekiah instructed that Jeremiah be confined to the vestibule of the prison, and that they should give him a twist of bread daily, along with stew, until all the bread in the city had been consumed. And Jeremiah remained at the entrance of the prison.


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Then Shephatiah, the son of Mattan, and Gedaliah, the son of Pashhur, and Jehucal, the son of Shelemiah, and Pashhur, the son of Malchiah, heard the words that Jeremiah was speaking to all the people, saying:


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“Thus says the Lord: Whoever will remain in this city will die by the sword, and by famine, and by pestilence. But whoever will flee away from the Chaldeans, will live, and his soul will dwell in safety.


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Thus says the Lord: This city will certainly be delivered into the hand of the army of the king of Babylon, and he will capture it.”


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And the leaders said to the king: “We petition you to put this man to death. For he is deliberately weakening the hands of the men of war, who have remained in this city, and the hands of the people, by speaking to them with these words. For this man is certainly not seeking peace for this people, but evil.”


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And king Zedekiah said: “Behold, he is in your hands. For it is not fitting for the king to deny you anything.”


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Therefore, they took Jeremiah and cast him into the pit of Malchiah, the son of Amelech, which was at the entrance to the prison. And they lowered Jeremiah by ropes into the pit, in which there was no water, but only mud. And so Jeremiah descended into the mire.


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Now Ebedmelech, an Ethiopian man, a eunuch who was in the king’s house, heard that they had sent Jeremiah into the pit, and also that the king was sitting at the gate of Benjamin.


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“My lord the king, these men have done evil in all that they have perpetrated against Jeremiah the prophet, casting him into the pit so that he would die there from famine. For there is no more bread in the city.”


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And so the king instructed Ebedmelech, the Ethiopian, saying: “Take with you thirty men from here, and lift Jeremiah the prophet from the pit, before he dies.”


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Therefore, Ebedmelech, taking the men with him, entered into the king’s house to a place below the storehouse. And he took from there old garments, no longer in use, and he sent them down by rope to Jeremiah in the pit.


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And Ebedmelech, the Ethiopian, said to Jeremiah: “Place these old garments, and these cut and decaying cloths, under your arms and over the ropes.” And Jeremiah did so.


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And they pulled up Jeremiah with the ropes, and they led him away from the pit. And Jeremiah remained in the vestibule of the prison.


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And king Zedekiah sent and took Jeremiah the prophet to him at the third gate, which was at the house of the Lord. And the king said to Jeremiah: “I will question you about a matter. You shall conceal nothing from me.”


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Then Jeremiah said to Zedekiah: “If I announce to you, will you not put me to death? And if I give you counsel, you will not listen to me.”


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Then king Zedekiah swore to Jeremiah, secretly, saying: “As the Lord lives, who made this soul for us, I will not kill you, nor will I deliver you into the hands of those men who are seeking your life.”


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And Jeremiah said to Zedekiah: “Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: If, having set out, you go to the rulers of the king of Babylon, your soul will live, and this city will not be burned with fire. And you and your house will be safe.


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But if you will not go to the rulers of the king of Babylon, this city will be delivered into the hands of the Chaldeans, and they will burn it with fire. And you will not escape from their hand.”


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And king Zedekiah said to Jeremiah: “I am anxious, because of the Jews who have crossed over to the Chaldeans, lest perhaps I may be delivered into their hands, and they may abuse me.”


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But Jeremiah responded: “They will not deliver you. Listen, I ask you, to the voice of the Lord, which I am speaking to you, and it will be well with you, and your soul will live.


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Behold, all the women who remain in the house of the king of Judah will be led away to the rulers of the king of Babylon. And the women will say: ‘Your men of peacefulness have led you astray, and they have prevailed against you. They have immersed your feet in mud and have set them in a slippery place. And they have withdrawn from you.’


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And all your wives and your sons will be led away to the Chaldeans, and you will not escape from their hands. Instead, you will be seized by the hand of the king of Babylon. And he will burn this city with fire.”


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But if the leaders hear that I have spoken with you, and if they come to you, and say to you: ‘Tell us what you said to the king. Do not conceal it from us, and we will not put you to death. And tell us what the king said to you,’


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then you shall say to them: ‘I presented my supplication before the king, so that he would not order me to be led back to the house of Jonathan, to die there.’ ”


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Then all the leaders came to Jeremiah, and they questioned him. And he spoke to them in accord with all the words that the king had commanded him. And they withdrew from him, for they had learned nothing.


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Yet truly, Jeremiah remained at the entrance of the prison, until the day when Jerusalem was seized. And it happened that Jerusalem was captured.


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In the ninth year of Zedekiah, the king of Judah, in the tenth month, Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem, with his entire army, and they besieged it.


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Then, in the eleventh year of Zedekiah, in the fourth month, on the fifth of the month, the city was opened.


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And all the rulers of the king of Babylon entered and were seated at the middle gate: Nergal-Sharezer, the priest of Nebo, Sarsechim, the chief eunuch, Nergal-Sharezer, the chief magi, and all the other rulers of the king of Babylon.


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And when Zedekiah, the king of Judah, with all the men of war, had seen them, they fled. And they departed from the city at night, by way of the king’s garden, and through the gate which was between the two walls. And they departed along the way of the desert.


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But the army of the Chaldeans pursued them. And they overtook Zedekiah in the plain of the desert of Jericho. And having captured him, they led him to Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, at Riblah, which is in the land of Hamath. And he declared a judgment against him


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And the king of Babylon killed the sons of Zedekiah, at Riblah, before his eyes. And the king of Babylon killed all the nobles of Judah.


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Also, he plucked out the eyes of Zedekiah. And he bound him with fetters, to be led away to Babylon.


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Also, the Chaldeans burned the house of the king and the house of the people with fire, and they overturned the wall of Jerusalem.


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And Nebuzaradan, the leader of the military, carried away captive to Babylon the remnant of the people who had remained in the city, and the fugitives who had fled to him, and all the rest of the people who had remained.


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And Nebuzaradan, the leader of the military, released some of the poor people, those who had almost nothing, into the land of Judah. And he gave them vineyards and cisterns in that day.


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Now Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, had instructed Nebuzaradan, the leader of the military, about Jeremiah, saying:


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“Take him, and set your eyes on him, and you shall do no harm to him at all. But as he is willing, so shall you do with him.”


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Therefore, Nebuzaradan, the leader of the military, sent, and Nebushazban, the chief eunuch, and Nergal-Sharezer, the chief magi, and all the nobles of the king of Babylon sent,


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and they took Jeremiah from the vestibule of the prison, and they delivered him to Gedaliah, the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, so that he could enter a house and live among the people.


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But the word of the Lord had come to Jeremiah, when he had been confined to the vestibule of the prison, saying: “Go, and speak to Ebedmelech, the Ethiopian, saying:


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Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will bring my words over this city for evil, and not for good; and they shall be in your sight in that day.


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And I will free you in that day, says the Lord. And you will not be delivered into the hands of the men whom you dread.


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But when delivering, I will free you. And you will not fall by the sword. Instead, your life will be saved for you, because you had faith in me, says the Lord.”


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The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, after Nebuzaradan, the leader of the military, had released him from Ramah, where he had taken him, bound in chains, along with all those who were being carried away from Jerusalem and from Judah, and were being led to Babylon.


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Therefore, the leader of the military, taking Jeremiah, said to him: “The Lord your God has declared this evil over this place,


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and he has brought it. And the Lord has done just as he has spoken. For you have sinned against the Lord, and you have not heeded his voice, and so this word has happened to you.


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Now therefore, behold, I have released you this day from the chains which were on your hands. If it pleases you to come with me into Babylon, then come. And I will set my eyes upon you. But if it displeases you to come with me into Babylon, then remain. Behold, all the land is in your sight. Whatever you will choose, and wherever it will please you to go, so shall you go, proceeding to that place.


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And you may decline to come with me. For you may live with Gedaliah, the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, whom the king of Babylon has made governor over the cities of Judah. Therefore, you may live with him in the midst of the people. And you may go wherever it will please you to go.” And the leader of the military also gave him foods and gifts, and he released him.


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Then Jeremiah went to Gedaliah, the son of Ahikam, at Mizpah. And he lived with him in the midst of the people, those who had been left behind in the land.


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And when all the leaders of the army, who had been dispersed throughout the regions, they and their associates, had heard that the king of Babylon had made Gedaliah, the son of Ahikam, governor of the land, and that he had committed to him the men, and women, and children, and the poor of the land, who had not been carried away to Babylon,


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they went to Gedaliah at Mizpah, with Ishmael, the son of Nethaniah, and Johanan and Jonathan, the sons of Kareah, and Seraiah, the son of Tanhumeth, and the sons of Ephai, who were of Netophathi, and Jezaniah, the son of Maacathi, they and their men.


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And Gedaliah, the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, swore to them and to their companions, saying: “Do not be afraid to serve the Chaldeans. Live in the land, and serve the king of Babylon, and it will be well with you.


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Behold, I live at Mizpah, so that I may follow the instruction of the Chaldeans who are sent to us. But as for you, gather the vintage, and the harvest, and the oil, and store it up in your vessels, and dwell in your cities, which you hold.”


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So then, all the Jews, who were in Moab, and among the sons of Ammon, and in Idumea, and in all the regions, when they had heard that the king of Babylon had left a remnant in Judea, and that he had made Gedaliah, the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, governor over them,


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all the Jews, I say, returned from all the places to which they had fled, and they came into the land of Judah, to Gedaliah at Mizpah. And they gathered wine and an exceedingly great harvest.


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Then Johanan, the son of Kareah, and all the leaders of the army, who had been dispersed in the regions, came to Gedaliah at Mizpah.


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And they said to him: “Know that Baalis, the king of the sons of Ammon, has sent Ishmael, the son of Nethaniah, to strike down your life.” And Gedaliah, the son of Ahikam, did not believe them.


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But Johanan, the son of Kareah, spoke to Gedaliah, separately, at Mizpah, saying: “I will go, and I will strike down Ishmael, the son of Nethaniah, without anyone knowing; otherwise he may kill you, and all the Jews will be scattered who have been gathered to you, and the remnant of Judah will perish.”


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And Gedaliah, the son of Ahikam, said to Johanan, the son of Kareah: “Do not do this word. For what you have said about Ishmael is false.”


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And it happened that, in the seventh month, Ishmael, the son of Nethaniah, the son of Elishama of royal descent, with the nobles of the king, and accompanied by ten men, went to Gedaliah, the son of Ahikam, at Mizpah. And they ate bread together there, in Mizpah.


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Then Ishmael, the son of Nethaniah, rose up, and the ten men who were with him, and they struck down Gedaliah, the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, with the sword, and they killed him whom the king of Babylon had made governor over the land.


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Likewise, Ishmael struck down all the Jews who were with Gedaliah at Mizpah, with the Chaldeans who were found there, and the men of war.


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men arrived from Shechem, and from Shiloh, and from Samaria, eighty men, with their beards shaved, and their garments rent, and unbathed. And they had gifts and frankincense in hand, so that they might make an offering in the house of the Lord.


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Therefore, Ishmael, the son of Nethaniah, departing from Mizpah to meet them, went forth weeping as he was walking. And when he had met them, he said to them, “Come to Gedaliah, the son of Ahikam.”


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And when they had arrived at the center of the city, Ishmael, the son of Nethaniah, put them to death around the public cistern, he and the men who were with him.


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But ten men were found among them, who said to Ishmael: “Do not kill us! For in the field we have storehouses of grain and barley and oil and honey.” And so he ceased, and he did not put them to death with their brothers.


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Now the cistern, into which Ishmael cast all the dead bodies of the men whom he had struck down because of Gedaliah, is the same one that king Asa made out of fear of Baasha, the king of Israel. This same cistern Ishmael, the son of Nethaniah, filled with those who were slain.


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Then Ishmael led away captive all the remnant of the people who were at Mizpah, the king’s daughters as well as all the people who remained at Mizpah, whom Nebuzaradan, the leader of the military, had committed to Gedaliah, the son of Ahikam. And Ishmael, the son of Nethaniah, seized them and went away, so that he might go over to the sons of Ammon.


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But Johanan, the son of Kareah, and all the leaders of the fighters who were with him, heard about all the evil that Ishmael, the son of Nethaniah, had done.


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And taking all the men, they set out to make war against Ishmael, the son of Nethaniah. And they found him at the great waters that are in Gibeon.


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And when all the people who were with Ishmael had seen Johanan, the son of Kareah, and all the leaders of the fighters who were with him, they rejoiced.


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And all the people whom Ishmael had seized turned back to Mizpah. And they returned and went over to Johanan, the son of Kareah.


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But Ishmael, the son of Nethaniah, fled with eight men from the face of Johanan, and they went over to the sons of Ammon.


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Therefore, Johanan, the son of Kareah, and all the leaders of the fighters who were with him, took from Mizpah the entire remnant of the common people, whom they had led away from Ishmael, the son of Nethaniah, after he had struck down Gedaliah, the son of Ahikam. These were strong men of battle, and women, and children, and eunuchs: those whom he had led away from Gibeon.


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And they went away and settled as sojourners at Chimham, which is near Bethlehem, so that they might continue on and enter into Egypt,


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away from the face of the Chaldeans. For they were afraid of them, because Ishmael, the son of Nethaniah, had struck down Gedaliah, the son of Ahikam, whom the king of Babylon had made governor in the land of Judah.


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And all the leaders of the warriors, and Johanan, the son of Kareah, and Azariah, the son of Hoshaiah, and the rest of the common people, from the least even to the greatest, drew near.


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And they said to Jeremiah the prophet: “Let our supplication fall before your sight. And pray for us to the Lord your God, on behalf of this entire remnant. For few out of many have been left behind, just as your eyes behold us.


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And so, may the Lord your God announce to us the way that we must travel, and the word that we must accomplish.”


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Then Jeremiah, the prophet, said to them: “I have listened. Behold, I will pray to the Lord your God according to your words. And whatever word he will respond to me, I will declare to you. And I will conceal nothing from you.”


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And they said to Jeremiah: “May the Lord be the witness between us of truth and fidelity, if we do not act according to whatever word the Lord your God will send by you to us.


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Whether it is for good or for harm, we will obey the voice of the Lord our God, to whom we are sending you. So may it be well with us, when we heed the voice of the Lord our God.”


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And he called Johanan, the son of Kareah, and all the leaders of warriors who were with him, and all the people, from the least even to the greatest.


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And he said to them: “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, to whom you have sent me, so that I may present your petitions in his sight:


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If you dwell quietly in this land, I will build you up, and I will not tear you down. I will plant you, and I will not uproot you. For now I have been appeased by the harm that I have done to you.


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Do not be afraid before the face of the king of Babylon, whom you have dreaded with great fear. Do not dread him, says the Lord. For I am with you, so that I may accomplish your salvation, and so that I may rescue you from his hand.


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And I will give you mercies, and I will take pity on you, and I will cause you to live in your own land.


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saying: ‘Never! Instead, we will travel to the land of Egypt, where we will not see war, and we will not hear the blast of the trumpet, and we will not endure famine. And there we shall live.’


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Because of this, hear now the word of the Lord, O remnant of Judah: Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: If you set your faces so as to advance into Egypt, and if you enter so that you may live there,


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the sword which you dread will overtake you there, in the land of Egypt, and the famine, about which you are anxious, will cling to you in Egypt, and there you shall die.


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And all the men, who have set their faces so that they may advance to Egypt in order to live there, will die by the sword, and by famine, and by pestilence. None of them will remain, nor will they escape from the face of the evil that I will bring over them.


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For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Just as my fury and my indignation has been enflamed over the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so will my indignation be enflamed over you, when you will have entered into Egypt. And so you will be an oath, and an astonishment, and a curse, and a disgrace. And you will never see this place again.


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This is the word of the Lord concerning you, O remnant of Judah: Do not choose to enter into Egypt, for certainly you understand what I have sworn to you this day.


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For you have deceived your own souls. For you have sent me to the Lord our God, saying: ‘Pray on our behalf to the Lord our God. And in accord with anything whatsoever that the Lord our God will tell you, announce this to us, and we will do it.’


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And I have announced it to you this day, and you have not heeded the voice of the Lord your God, concerning everything about which he has sent me to you.


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Therefore, know with certainty now, that you will die by the sword, and by famine, and by pestilence, in the place which you wish to enter so that you may live there.”


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Then it happened that, when Jeremiah had finished speaking all the words of the Lord their God to the people, all those words concerning which the Lord their God had sent him to them,


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Azariah, the son of Hoshaiah, and Johanan, the son of Kareah, and all the exalted men, spoke to Jeremiah, saying: “You are speaking a lie! The Lord our God has not sent you to say: ‘You shall not enter into Egypt so as to live in that place.’


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Instead, Baruch, the son of Neriah, has incited you against us, so as to deliver us into the hands of the Chaldeans, to put us to death and to cause us to be led away into Babylon.”


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And so Johanan, the son of Kareah, and all the leaders of the warriors, and all the people, did not heed the voice of the Lord to remain in the land of Judah.


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But Johanan, the son of Kareah, and all the leaders of the warriors, took away all the remnant of Judah, who had returned from all the nations (to which they had been scattered before) to live in the land of Judah:


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men, and women, and children, and the daughters of the king, and every soul that Nebuzaradan, the leader of the military, had left behind with Gedaliah, the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, as well as Jeremiah, the prophet, and Baruch, the son of Neriah.


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And they entered into the land of Egypt. For they did not obey the voice of the Lord. And they went as far as Tahpanhes.


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“Take great stones in your hand, and you shall conceal them in the crypt which is under the brick wall at the gate of the house of Pharaoh at Tahpanhes, in the sight of the men of Judah.


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And you shall say to them: Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will send for and take Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, my servant, and I will set his throne over these stones which I have concealed, and he will establish his throne upon them.


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And he will come and strike the land of Egypt: those who are meant for death, shall go to death, and those for captivity, to captivity, and those for the sword, to the sword.


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And he will kindle a fire in the shrines of the gods of Egypt, and he will burn them down, and he will lead them away captive. And he will clothe himself with the land of Egypt, just as a shepherd is clothed with his cloak. And he will go forth from that place in peace.


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And he will crush the statues of the house of the Sun, those that are in the land of Egypt, and the shrines of the gods of Egypt he will burn up with fire.”


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The word that came through Jeremiah to all the Jews who were living in the land of Egypt, living at Migdol, and at Tahpanhes, and at Memphis, and in the land of Pathros, saying:


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“Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: You yourselves have seen all this evil that I have led over Jerusalem and over all the cities of Judah. And behold, they are desolate to this day, and there is no inhabitant in them,


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because of the wickedness which they have done, so that they provoked me to wrath, and because they went to offer sacrifice and worship to strange gods, which neither they, nor you, nor your fathers knew.


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And I sent to you all my servants, the prophets, rising in the night, and sending, and saying: ‘Do not choose to do this abominable word, which I hate.’


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But they did not listen, nor did they incline their ear, so that they would convert from their evil, and so that they would not sacrifice to strange gods.


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And so my indignation and my fury was fanned and kindled in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. And they have been turned into desolation and devastation, just as it is this day.


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And now, thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Why do you commit this great evil against your own souls, so that, among you, man and woman, child and infant would pass away from the midst of Judah, and so that no remnant at all would be left behind of you?


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For you have provoked me by the works of your hands, by sacrificing to strange gods in the land of Egypt, into which you have entered in order to live there, and so that you would perish and become a curse and a disgrace before all the nations of the earth.


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How could you have forgotten the evils of your fathers, and the evils of the kings of Judah, and the evils of their wives, and your own evils, and the evils of your own wives, which they have done in the land of Judah and in the regions of Jerusalem?


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They have not been cleansed, even to this day. And they have not feared, and they have not walked in the law of the Lord and in my precepts, which I have given before you and before your fathers.


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For this reason, thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will set my face upon you for evil. And I will disperse all of Judah.


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And I will take the remnant of Judah, who had set their faces so that they would enter into the land of Egypt and live there, and they will all be consumed in the land of Egypt. They will fall by the sword and by famine. And they will be consumed, from the least, even to the greatest. By sword and by famine shall they die. And they will be an oath, and a wonder, and a curse, and a disgrace.


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And I will visit against those who are living in the land of Egypt, just as I have visited against Jerusalem: with the sword, and with famine, and with pestilence.


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And there will be no one who escapes, of those who remain among the remnant of the Jews, those who have gone to sojourn in the land of Egypt. And they wish to be returned to the land of Judah, for they lift up their souls so that they might return and live there. But there will be no one who may return, except those who will flee.”


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Then all the men, knowing that their wives were sacrificing to strange gods, and all of the women, a great multitude of whom were standing there, and all of the people who were living in the land of Egypt at Pathros, responded to Jeremiah, by saying:


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But we will continue to do every word which proceeds from our own mouth, so that we sacrifice to the queen of heaven, and we pour out libations to her, just as we and our fathers have done, our kings and our leaders, in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. For we were filled with bread, and it was well with us, and we saw no evil.


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But since the time that we ceased to offer sacrifice to the queen of heaven, and to pour out libations to her, we have been in need of all things, and we have been consumed by the sword and by famine.


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But when we offer sacrifice to the queen of heaven and pour out libations to her, do we make cakes for her worship and offer libations to her without our husbands?”


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And Jeremiah spoke to all the people, facing the men, and facing the women, and facing all the people who had responded this word to him, saying:


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“Was this not the sacrifice that you offered in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, you and your fathers, your kings and your leaders, and the people of the land, which has been called to mind by the Lord and which has entered into his heart?


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And the Lord could no longer bear this, because of the evil of your intentions, and because of the abominations that you have done. And so, your land has become a desolation, and an astonishment, and a curse, and it is without an inhabitant, even to this day.


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This is because you have sacrificed to idols, and you have sinned against the Lord. And you have not heeded the voice of the Lord, and you have not walked in his law, and in his precepts, and in his testimonies. It is for this reason that these evils have happened to you, just as it is today.”


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Then Jeremiah said to all the people and to all the women: “Listen to the word of the Lord, all you of Judah who are in the land of Egypt:


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Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, saying: You and your wives have spoken it with your mouth, and have fulfilled it with your hands, saying: ‘Let us perform our vows that we have made, so that we may offer sacrifice to the queen of heaven, and pour out libations to her.’ You have fulfilled your vows and accomplished their works.


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Because of this, listen to the word of the Lord, all you of Judah, who live in the land of Egypt: Behold, I have sworn by my great name, says the Lord, that my name will never again be invoked by the mouth of any man of Judah in the land of Egypt, saying: ‘As the Lord God lives.’


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Behold, I will be vigilant over them for harm, and not for good. And all the men of Judah who are in the land of Egypt will be consumed, by the sword and by famine, until they are thoroughly consumed.


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And a few men, who will flee from the sword, will return from the land of Egypt into the land of Judah. And all the remnant of Judah, who had entered into the land of Egypt so as to live there, will know whose word will be completed, mine or theirs.


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And this will be a sign to you, says the Lord, that I will visit against you in this place, so that truly you may know that my words will be completed against you for harm.”


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Thus says the Lord: “Behold, I will deliver Pharaoh Hophra, the king of Egypt, into the hand of his enemies, and into the hand of those who are seeking his life, just as I delivered Zedekiah, the king of Judah, into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, his enemy and the one who was seeking his life.”


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The word that Jeremiah the prophet spoke to Baruch, the son of Neriah, when he had written these words in a book, from the mouth of Jeremiah, in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, the king of Judah, saying:


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You have said: ‘Woe to me, a wretched man! For the Lord has added sorrow to my sorrow. I have labored in my groaning, and I have not found rest.’


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Thus says the Lord: So shall you say to him: Behold, those whom I have built up, I destroy, and those whom I have planted, I uproot, even this entire land.


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And are you seeking great things for yourself? Do not choose to seek them. For behold, I will lead evil over all that is flesh, says the Lord. But I will give your life to you unto salvation, in every place, wherever you may travel.”


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about Egypt, against the army of Pharaoh Neco, the king of Egypt, which was beside the river Euphrates at Carchemish, which Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, struck down, in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, the king of Judah:


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Harness the horses, and let the horsemen climb upon them! Stand forth with helmets! Sharpen the lances! Clothe yourselves in armor!’


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And what is next? I have seen them terrified, and turning their backs, their strong ones cut down. They have fled in disorder and have not looked back. Terror on every side, says the Lord.


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Let not the swift take flight; let not the strong ones think to save themselves. They have been conquered and ruined, toward the north, near the river Euphrates.


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Egypt ascends in the form of a river, and its waves will be moved like those of a river. And he will say: ‘I will ascend and cover the earth! I will perish the city and its inhabitants!’


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Mount the horses, and exult upon chariots, and let the strong ones advance: the Ethiopians, and the Libyans, who hold the heavy shield, and the Lydians, who grasp and shoot arrows.


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For this is the day of the Lord, the God of hosts, a day of vengeance, so that he may vindicate himself of his enemies. The sword will devour, and be satiated, and be inebriated with their blood. For there is a victim of the Lord, the God of hosts, in the land of the north, beside the river Euphrates.


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Ascend to Gilead, and take its balm, O virgin daughter of Egypt! It is in vain that you multiply medicines; there will be no health for you!


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The nations have heard of your disgrace, and your wailing has filled the earth. For the strong have stumbled against the strong, and both have fallen together.”


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The word that the Lord spoke to Jeremiah the prophet, concerning how Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, would arrive and strike the land of Egypt:


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“Announce it to Egypt, and make it heard in Migdol, and let it resonate in Memphis and in Tahpanhes. Say this: Stand and prepare yourself! For the sword will devour everything around you.


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He has multiplied those in ruin, and each man has fallen beside his neighbor. And they will say: ‘Rise up, and let us return to our own people and to the land of our nativity, away from the face of the sword of the dove.


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As I live, says the King, whose name is the Lord of hosts, just as Tabor is among the mountains, and just as Carmel is beside the sea, so will he come.


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Equip yourself for the transmigration, O daughter who inhabitants Egypt. For Memphis will be in desolation, and it will be deserted and uninhabited.


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Her hired hands also, who move within her midst, like fatted calves have been turned back, and they have fled at the same time, and they are not able to stand firm. For the day of their passing away has overwhelmed them; it is the time of their visitation.


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Her voice will sound out like brass. For they will rush forward with an army, and with axes they will come against her, like those who chop wood.


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They have cut down her forest, says the Lord, which was not able to be counted. They have been multiplied more than locusts, and they are without number.


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The daughter of Egypt has been confounded, and she has been delivered into the hand of the people of the north.


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The Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, said: Behold, I will visit against the tumult of Alexandria, and against Pharaoh, and against Egypt, and against her gods, and against her kings, and against Pharaoh, and against those who trust in him.


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And I will give them over to the hand of those who seek their lives, and into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, and into the hand of his servants. And after this, it shall be inhabited, just as in the former days, says the Lord.


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And as for you, my servant Jacob, you should not be afraid, and you should not dread, O Israel. For behold, I will bring your salvation from afar, and your offspring from the land of your captivity. And Jacob will return and have rest, and he will prosper. And there will be no one who may terrify him.


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And as for you, my servant Jacob, do not be afraid, says the Lord. For I am with you. For I will consume all the nations to which I have cast you out. Yet truly, I will not consume you. Instead, I will chastise you in judgment, but neither will I spare you, as if you were innocent.”


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The word of the Lord that came to Jeremiah, the prophet, against the Philistines, before Pharaoh struck Gaza.


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Thus says the Lord: “Behold, waters will rise up from the north, and they will be like an inundating torrent, and they will cover the land and its plenitude, the city and its inhabitants. The men will cry out, and all the inhabitants of the land will wail,


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before the uproar of a procession of weapons and of his soldiers, before the commotion of his four-horse chariots and the multitude of his wheels. The fathers have not looked back for the sons, because of feebleness of hands,


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because of the arrival of the day on which all the Philistines will be devastated, and Tyre and Sidon will be destroyed, with all the rest of their helpers. For the Lord has depopulated the Philistines, the remnant of the island of Cappadocia.


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Baldness has arrived over Gaza. Ashkelon has been silenced, along with the remnant of their valley. And how long will you continue to be cut down?


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O sharp sword of the Lord, how long will you be without rest? Enter your sheath; be refreshed and silenced.


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But how can it find rest, when the Lord has ordered it against Ashkelon and against its maritime regions, and when a task has been appointed to it there?”


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Against Moab, thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: “Woe upon Nebo! For it has been devastated and confounded. Kiriathaim has been seized; the strong one has been confounded and has trembled.


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There is no longer any rejoicing in Moab over Heshbon. They have devised evil. ‘Come and let us destroy it as a nation.’ Then you will be utterly silenced, and the sword will pursue you.


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For, along the ascent of Luhith, the mourner will ascend with weeping. For, on the descent of Horonaim, the enemies have heard the wailing of devastation.


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For because you have had faith in your fortifications and in your storehouses, you too will be seized. And Chemosh will go into captivity: his priests and his leaders together.


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And the despoiler will overwhelm every city, and not a single city will be saved. And the valleys will perish, and the fields will be destroyed. For the Lord has spoken.


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Give a blossom to Moab. For it will depart when it is blossoming. And its cities will become desolate and uninhabited.


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Cursed is he who does the work of the Lord deceitfully. And cursed is he who prohibits his sword from blood.


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Moab has been fertile from his youth, and he has rested amid his brood. And he has not been transferred from vessel to vessel, nor has he gone into the transmigration. Therefore, his taste has remained with him, and his scent has not changed.


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Because of this, behold, the days are approaching, says the Lord, when I will send to him those who will line up and knock down his bottles, and they will knock him down and empty his vessels, and they will break their bottles against one another.


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And Moab will be confounded by Chemosh, just as the house of Israel was shamed by Bethel, in which they had faith.


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Moab has been devastated, and they have cut down her cities. And her elect young men have descended to slaughter. So says the King, whose name is the Lord of hosts.


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Console him, all you who surround him and all you who know his name. Say: ‘How has the strong staff become broken, the glorious staff?’


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Descend from your glory, and sit in thirst, O habitation of the daughter of Dibon! For the destroyer of Moab has ascended to you; he has dissipated your fortifications.


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Stand in the way, and gaze out, O habitation of Aroer! Question him who is fleeing, and say to him who has escaped: ‘What has happened?’


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Moab has been confounded, because he has been conquered. Wail and cry out! Announce it in Arnon: Moab has been devastated,


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and judgment has arrived upon the land of the plains: upon Holon, and upon Jahzah, and upon Mephaath,


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and upon Kerioth, and upon Bozrah, and upon all the cities of the land of Moab, those far away and those nearby.


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Inebriate him, for he has lifted himself up against the Lord. And Moab will thrust his hand into his own vomit, and also now he himself will become a derision.


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For Israel had been a derision to them. It was as if you had discovered him among thieves. Because of your own words, then, which you have spoken against him, you will be led away captive.


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Relinquish the cities, and live upon a rock, O inhabitants of Moab, and be like a dove nesting at the mouth of an opening at the summit.


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We have listened to the arrogance of Moab; he is very proud: his exaltation, and arrogance, and pride, and the loftiness of his heart.


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I myself know, says the Lord, his boasting, and that his ability is not in accord with it, nor is it in accord with what he has been striving to do.


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For this reason, I will wail over Moab, and I will cry out to all of Moab, to the men on the brick wall who are lamenting.


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O vineyard of Sibmah, I will weep for you, with the mourning of Jazer. Your offshoots have crossed over the sea. They have reached even to the sea of Jazer. The despoiler has rushed over your harvest and your vintage.


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Rejoicing and exultation has been taken away from Carmel and from the land of Moab. And I have taken the wine from the winepresses. The treader of grapes will no longer sing the usual rhythmic chant.


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From the outcry of Heshbon, even to Elealeh and Jahzah, they have uttered their voice; from Zoar, even to Horonaim, like a three year old calf. So too, the waters of Nimrim will be very bad.


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And I will take away from Moab, says the Lord, the one who makes offerings in exalted places, and the one who sacrifices to his gods.


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Because of this, my heart will resound for Moab, like the pipes, and my heart will make a sound like the pipes for the men on the brick wall. For he has done more than he was able, yet still they have perished.


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For every head will be bald, and every beard will be shaved. All the hands will be bound together, and there will be haircloth on every back.


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Over all the rooftops of Moab, and in its streets, everyone will mourn. For I have crushed Moab like a useless vessel, says the Lord.


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How was it conquered, so that they would wail? How is it that Moab has cast down his neck and been confounded? And Moab will be a derision and an example to everyone around him.”


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Kerioth has been captured, and the fortifications have been taken. And in that day, the heart of the strong ones of Moab will be like the heart of a woman giving birth.


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Whoever flees from the terror will fall into the pit. And whoever climbs out of the pit will be seized by the snare. For I will lead over Moab the year of their visitation, says the Lord.


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Those fleeing from the snare stood in the shadow of Heshbon. For a fire has gone forth from Heshbon, and a flame from the midst of Sihon, and it will devour the portion of Moab, and the top of the head of the sons of tumult.


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Woe to you, O Moab! You have been ruined, O people of Chemosh! For your sons and your daughters have been taken into captivity.


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But I will convert the captivity of Moab in the last days, says the Lord.” Such are the judgments of Moab thus far.


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Against the sons of Ammon. Thus says the Lord: “Does Israel have no sons? Or is there no heir for him? Then why has Milcom possessed the inheritance of Gad, and why have his people lived in his cities?


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Therefore, behold, the days are approaching, says the Lord, when I will cause the noise of battle to be heard over Rabbah of the sons of Ammon. And it will be scattered into a tumult, and her daughters will be burned with fire. And Israel shall possess those who had possessed him, says the Lord.


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Wail, O Heshbon! For Ai has been devastated. Cry out, O daughters of Rabbah! Wrap yourselves with haircloth. Mourn and circle the hedges. For Milcom will be led into the transmigration: his priests and his leaders together.


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Why have you gloried in the valleys? Your valley has flowed away, O delicate daughter, for you had confidence in your treasures, and you were saying, ‘Who can approach me?’


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Behold, I will lead a terror over you, says the Lord, the God of hosts, from those who are all around you. And you will be dispersed, each one from before your sight. There will be no one who will gather together those who are fleeing.


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Against Idumea. Thus says the Lord of hosts: “Is there no longer any wisdom in Teman? Counsel has perished from the sons. Their wisdom has become useless.


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Flee and turn your backs! Descend into the chasm, O inhabitants of Dedan! For I have brought the perdition of Esau over him, the time of his visitation.


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If those who gather grapes had passed by you, would they not have left behind a cluster? If there were thieves in the night, they would seize what was enough for themselves.


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Yet truly, I have stripped Esau bare. I have revealed his secrets, and he is not able to be concealed. His offspring has been devastated, with his brothers and his neighbors, and he himself will not exist.


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For thus says the Lord: “Behold, those who judged that they would not drink the cup, will certainly drink. And so, will you be released as if you were innocent? You will not be released as if innocent. Instead, you shall certainly drink.


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For I have sworn by myself, says the Lord, that Bozrah will be a desolation, and a disgrace, and a wasteland, and a curse. And all her cities will be a perpetual wilderness.


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I have heard a report from the Lord, and an legate has been sent to the nations: ‘Gather yourselves together, and go forth against her, and let us rise up to battle.’


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Your arrogance has deceived you, by the pride of your heart, you who live in the caverns of the rock and who strive to take hold of the height of the hill. But even if you make your nest like that of an eagle, I will pull you down from there, says the Lord.


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And Idumea will be a desert. Everyone who passes by it will be stupefied and will hiss over all its wounds.


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Just as Sodom and Gomorrah and their neighbors were overthrown, says the Lord: there will not be a man living there, and no son of man will tend it.


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Behold, he will ascend like a lion from the arrogance of the Jordan, against the robust beauty. For I will cause him to rush against her suddenly. And who will be the elect one, whom I may appoint over her? For who is like me? And who can endure me? And who is that pastor who can withstand my countenance?


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Because of this, listen to the counsel of the Lord, which he has undertaken concerning Edom, and to his thoughts, which he has devised concerning the inhabitants of Teman. Certainly, the little ones of the flock will cast them down, unless they scatter them with their habitation.


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The earth has been shaken at the noise of their destruction. The outcry of their voice has been heard at the Red Sea.


