Lamentations 4 Cross References - BSB

¹ How the gold has become tarnished, the pure gold has become dull! The gems of the temple lie scattered on every street corner. ² How the precious sons of Zion, once worth their weight in pure gold, are now esteemed as jars of clay, the work of a potter’s hands! ³ Even jackals offer their breasts to nurse their young, but the daughter of my people has become cruel, like an ostrich in the wilderness. ⁴ The nursing infant’s tongue clings in thirst to the roof of his mouth. Little children beg for bread, but no one gives them any. ⁵ Those who once ate delicacies are destitute in the streets; those brought up in crimson huddle in ash heaps. ⁶ The punishment of the daughter of my people is greater than that of Sodom, which was overthrown in an instant without a hand turned to help her. ⁷ Her dignitaries were brighter than snow, whiter than milk; their bodies were more ruddy than rubies, their appearance like sapphires. ⁸ But now their appearance is blacker than soot; they are not recognized in the streets. Their skin has shriveled on their bones; it has become as dry as a stick. ⁹ Those slain by the sword are better off than those who die of hunger, who waste away, pierced with pain because the fields lack produce. ¹⁰ The hands of compassionate women have cooked their own children, who became their food in the destruction of the daughter of my people. ¹¹ The LORD has exhausted His wrath; He has poured out His fierce anger; He has kindled a fire in Zion, and it has consumed her foundations. ¹² The kings of the earth did not believe, nor any people of the world, that an enemy or a foe could enter the gates of Jerusalem. ¹³ But this was for the sins of her prophets and the guilt of her priests, who shed the blood of the righteous in her midst. ¹⁴ They wandered blind in the streets, defiled by this blood, so that no one dared to touch their garments. ¹⁵ “Go away! Unclean!” men shouted at them. “Away, away! Do not touch us!” So they fled and wandered. Among the nations it was said, “They can stay here no longer.” ¹⁶ The presence of the LORD has scattered them; He regards them no more. The priests are shown no honor; the elders find no favor. ¹⁷ All the while our eyes were failing as we looked in vain for help. We watched from our towers for a nation that could not save us. ¹⁸ They stalked our every step, so that we could not walk in our streets. Our end drew near, our time ran out, for our end had come! ¹⁹ Those who chased us were swifter than the eagles in the sky; they pursued us over the mountains and ambushed us in the wilderness. ²⁰ The LORD’s anointed, the breath of our life, was captured in their pits. We had said of him, “Under his shadow we will live among the nations.” ²¹ So rejoice and be glad, O Daughter of Edom, you who dwell in the land of Uz. Yet the cup will pass to you as well; you will get drunk and expose yourself. ²² O Daughter of Zion, your punishment is complete; He will not prolong your exile. But He will punish your iniquity, O Daughter of Edom; He will expose your sins.

⁹ He burned down the house of the LORD, the royal palace, and all the houses of Jerusalem—every significant building. ¹⁰ And the whole army of the Chaldeans under the captain of the guard broke down the walls around Jerusalem.

²¹ See how the faithful city has become a harlot! She once was full of justice; righteousness resided within her, but now only murderers!

¹² How you have fallen from heaven, O day star, son of the dawn! You have been cut down to the ground, O destroyer of nations.

¹³ He burned down the house of the LORD, the royal palace, and all the houses of Jerusalem—every significant building.

¹⁹ Arise, cry out in the night from the first watch of the night. Pour out your heart like water in the presence of the Lord. Lift up your hands to Him for the lives of your children who are fainting from hunger on the corner of every street.

¹⁹ They will throw their silver into the streets, and their gold will seem unclean. Their silver and gold cannot save them in the day of the wrath of the LORD. They cannot satisfy their appetites or fill their stomachs with wealth, for it became the stumbling block that brought their iniquity. ²⁰ His beautiful ornaments they transformed into pride and used them to fashion their vile images and detestable idols. Therefore I will make these into something unclean for them. ²¹ And I will hand these things over as plunder to foreigners and loot to the wicked of the earth, who will defile them. ²² I will turn My face away from them, and they will defile My treasured place. Violent men will enter it, and they will defile it.

² “Do you see all these things?” He replied. “Truly I tell you, not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.”

² “Do you see all these great buildings?” Jesus replied. “Not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.”

⁵ As some of the disciples were remarking how the temple was adorned with beautiful stones and consecrated gifts, Jesus said, ⁶ “As for what you see here, the time will come when not one stone will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.”

¹⁴ It will break in pieces like a potter’s jar, shattered so that no fragment can be found. Not a shard will be found in the dust large enough to scoop the coals from a hearth or to skim the water from a cistern.”

¹⁸ Among all the sons she bore, there is no one to guide her; among all the sons she brought up, there is no one to take her hand.

¹¹ and you are to proclaim to them that this is what the LORD of Hosts says: I will shatter this nation and this city, like one shatters a potter’s jar that can never again be repaired. They will bury the dead in Topheth until there is no more room to bury them.

²⁸ Is this man Coniah a despised and shattered pot, a jar that no one wants? Why are he and his descendants hurled out and cast into a land they do not know?

²¹ Both young and old lie together in the dust of the streets. My young men and maidens have fallen by the sword. You have slain them in the day of Your anger; You have slaughtered them without compassion.

¹² Princes have been hung up by their hands; elders receive no respect.

¹³ For I will bend Judah as My bow and fit it with Ephraim. I will rouse your sons, O Zion, against the sons of Greece. I will make you like the sword of a mighty man.

²¹ Does not the potter have the right to make from the same lump of clay one vessel for special occasions and another for common use? ²² What if God, intending to show His wrath and make His power known, bore with great patience the vessels of His wrath, prepared for destruction? ²³ What if He did this to make the riches of His glory known to the vessels of His mercy, whom He prepared in advance for glory—

⁷ Now we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this surpassingly great power is from God and not from us.

²⁰ A large house contains not only vessels of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay. Some indeed are for honorable use, but others are for common use.

²⁹ You will eat the flesh of your own sons and daughters.

⁵² They will besiege all the cities throughout your land, until the high and fortified walls in which you trust have fallen. They will besiege all your cities throughout the land that the LORD your God has given you. ⁵³ Then you will eat the fruit of your womb, the flesh of the sons and daughters whom the LORD your God has given you, in the siege and distress that your enemy will inflict on you. ⁵⁴ The most gentle and refined man among you will begrudge his brother, the wife he embraces, and the rest of his children who have survived, ⁵⁵ refusing to share with any of them the flesh of his children he will eat because he has nothing left in the siege and distress that your enemy will inflict on you within all your gates. ⁵⁶ The most gentle and refined woman among you, so gentle and refined she would not venture to set the sole of her foot on the ground, will begrudge the husband she embraces and her son and daughter ⁵⁷ the afterbirth that comes from between her legs and the children she bears, because she will secretly eat them for lack of anything else in the siege and distress that your enemy will inflict on you within your gates.

²⁶ As the king of Israel was passing by on the wall, a woman cried out to him, “Help me, my lord the king!” ²⁷ He answered, “If the LORD does not help you, where can I find help for you? From the threshing floor or the winepress?” ²⁸ Then the king asked her, “What is the matter?” And she answered, “This woman said to me, ‘Give up your son, that we may eat him, and tomorrow we will eat my son.’ ²⁹ So we boiled my son and ate him, and the next day I said to her, ‘Give up your son, that we may eat him.’ But she had hidden her son.”

¹³ The wings of the ostrich flap joyfully, but cannot match the pinions and feathers of the stork. ¹⁴ For she leaves her eggs on the ground and lets them warm in the sand. ¹⁵ She forgets that a foot may crush them, or a wild animal may trample them. ¹⁶ She treats her young harshly, as if not her own, with no concern that her labor was in vain.

¹⁵ “Can a woman forget her nursing child, or lack compassion for the son of her womb? Even if she could forget, I will not forget you!

⁹ I will make them eat the flesh of their sons and daughters, and they will eat one another’s flesh in the siege and distress inflicted on them by their enemies who seek their lives.’

²⁰ Look, O LORD, and consider: Whom have You ever treated like this? Should women eat their offspring, the infants they have nurtured? Should priests and prophets be killed in the sanctuary of the Lord?

¹⁰ The hands of compassionate women have cooked their own children, who became their food in the destruction of the daughter of my people.

¹⁰ As a result, fathers among you will eat their sons, and sons will eat their fathers. I will execute judgments against you and scatter all your remnant to every wind.’

²⁸ But Jesus turned to them and said, “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for Me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. ²⁹ Look, the days are coming when people will say, ‘Blessed are the barren women, the wombs that never bore, and breasts that never nursed!’

³¹ They are senseless, faithless, heartless, merciless.

²⁴ They will be wasted from hunger and ravaged by pestilence and bitter plague; I will send the fangs of wild beasts against them, with the venom of vipers that slither in the dust.

¹⁵ My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth. You lay me in the dust of death.

⁶ May my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth if I do not remember you, if I do not exalt Jerusalem as my greatest joy!

¹¹ All her people groan as they search for bread. They have traded their treasures for food to keep themselves alive. Look, O LORD, and consider, for I have become despised.

¹¹ My eyes fail from weeping; I am churning within. My heart is poured out in grief over the destruction of the daughter of my people, because children and infants faint in the streets of the city. ¹² They cry out to their mothers: “Where is the grain and wine?” as they faint like the wounded in the streets of the city, as their lives fade away in the arms of their mothers.

⁹ Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? ¹⁰ Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? ¹¹ So if you who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!

⁵⁴ The most gentle and refined man among you will begrudge his brother, the wife he embraces, and the rest of his children who have survived, ⁵⁵ refusing to share with any of them the flesh of his children he will eat because he has nothing left in the siege and distress that your enemy will inflict on you within all your gates. ⁵⁶ The most gentle and refined woman among you, so gentle and refined she would not venture to set the sole of her foot on the ground, will begrudge the husband she embraces and her son and daughter

²⁴ O daughters of Israel, weep for Saul, who clothed you in scarlet and luxury, who decked your garments with ornaments of gold.

⁸ Drenched by mountain rains, they huddle against the rocks for want of shelter.

²¹ When it snows, she has no fear for her household, for they are all clothed in scarlet.

¹⁶ The LORD also says: “Because the daughters of Zion are haughty—walking with heads held high and wanton eyes, prancing and skipping as they go, jingling the bracelets on their ankles— ¹⁷ the Lord will bring sores on the heads of the daughters of Zion, and the LORD will make their foreheads bare.” ¹⁸ In that day the Lord will take away their finery: their anklets and headbands and crescents; ¹⁹ their pendants, bracelets, and veils; ²⁰ their headdresses, ankle chains, and sashes; their perfume bottles and charms; ²¹ their signet rings and nose rings; ²² their festive robes, capes, cloaks, and purses; ²³ and their mirrors, linen garments, tiaras, and shawls. ²⁴ Instead of fragrance there will be a stench; instead of a belt, a rope; instead of styled hair, baldness; instead of fine clothing, sackcloth; instead of beauty, shame. ²⁵ Your men will fall by the sword, and your warriors in battle. ²⁶ And the gates of Zion will lament and mourn; destitute, she will sit on the ground.

⁶ Therefore a curse has consumed the earth, and its inhabitants must bear the guilt; the earth’s dwellers have been burned, and only a few survive. ⁷ The new wine dries up, the vine withers. All the merrymakers now groan. ⁸ The joyful tambourines have ceased; the noise of revelers has stopped; the joyful harp is silent. ⁹ They no longer sing and drink wine; strong drink is bitter to those who consume it. ¹⁰ The city of chaos is shattered; every house is closed to entry. ¹¹ In the streets they cry out for wine. All joy turns to gloom; rejoicing is exiled from the land. ¹² The city is left in ruins; its gate is reduced to rubble.

⁹ Stand up, you complacent women; listen to me. Give ear to my word, you overconfident daughters. ¹⁰ In a little more than a year you will tremble, O secure ones. For the grape harvest will fail and the fruit harvest will not arrive. ¹¹ Shudder, you ladies of leisure; tremble, you daughters of complacency. Strip yourselves bare and put sackcloth around your waists. ¹² Beat your breasts for the pleasant fields, for the fruitful vines, ¹³ and for the land of my people, overgrown with thorns and briers—even for every house of merriment in this city of revelry. ¹⁴ For the palace will be forsaken, the busy city abandoned. The hill and the watchtower will become caves forever—the delight of wild donkeys and a pasture for flocks—

² Though she is beautiful and delicate, I will destroy the Daughter of Zion. ³ Shepherds and their flocks will come against her; they will pitch their tents all around her, each tending his own portion:

²¹ For death has climbed in through our windows; it has entered our fortresses to cut off the children from the streets, the young men from the town squares. ²² Declare that this is what the LORD says: “The corpses of men will fall like dung upon the open field, like newly cut grain behind the reaper, with no one to gather it.”

³ You dismiss the day of calamity and bring near a reign of violence. ⁴ You lie on beds inlaid with ivory, and lounge upon your couches. You dine on lambs from the flock and calves from the stall. ⁵ You improvise songs on the harp like David and invent your own musical instruments. ⁶ You drink wine by the bowlful and anoint yourselves with the finest oils, but you fail to grieve over the ruin of Joseph. ⁷ Therefore, you will now go into exile as the first of the captives, and your feasting and lounging will come to an end.

²⁵ Otherwise, what did you go out to see? A man dressed in fine clothes? Look, those who wear elegant clothing and live in luxury are found in palaces.

¹⁶ He longed to fill his belly with the pods the pigs were eating, but no one would give him a thing.

¹⁹ Now there was a rich man dressed in purple and fine linen, who lived each day in joyous splendor.

⁶ But she who lives for pleasure is dead even while she is still alive.

⁷ As much as she has glorified herself and lived in luxury, give her the same measure of torment and grief. In her heart she says, ‘I sit as queen; I am not a widow and will never see grief.’ ⁸ Therefore her plagues will come in one day—death and grief and famine—and she will be consumed by fire, for mighty is the Lord God who judges her.” ⁹ Then the kings of the earth who committed sexual immorality and lived in luxury with her will weep and wail at the sight of the smoke rising from the fire that consumes her.

²⁵ Thus He destroyed these cities and the entire plain, including all the inhabitants of the cities and everything that grew on the ground.

⁹ Unless the LORD of Hosts had left us a few survivors, we would have become like Sodom, we would have resembled Gomorrah. ¹⁰ Hear the word of the LORD, you rulers of Sodom; listen to the instruction of our God, you people of Gomorrah!

⁹ Those slain by the sword are better off than those who die of hunger, who waste away, pierced with pain because the fields lack produce.

⁴⁸ As surely as I live, declares the Lord GOD, your sister Sodom and her daughters never did as you and your daughters have done. ⁴⁹ Now this was the iniquity of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed, and complacent; they did not help the poor and needy. ⁵⁰ Thus they were haughty and committed abominations before Me. Therefore I removed them, as you have seen.

¹² You have carried out the words spoken against us and against our rulers by bringing upon us a great disaster. For under all of heaven, nothing has ever been done like what has been done to Jerusalem.

²³ And you, Capernaum, will you be lifted up to heaven? No, you will be brought down to Hades! For if the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Sodom, it would have remained to this day. ²⁴ But I tell you that it will be more bearable for Sodom on the day of judgment than for you.”

²¹ For at that time there will be great tribulation, unmatched from the beginning of the world until now, and never to be seen again.

¹² I tell you, it will be more bearable on that day for Sodom than for that town.

⁴⁷ That servant who knows his master’s will but does not get ready or follow his instructions will be beaten with many blows.

² “Speak to the Israelites and tell them that if a man or woman makes a special vow, the vow of a Nazirite, to separate himself to the LORD, ³ he is to abstain from wine and strong drink. He must not drink vinegar made from wine or strong drink, and he must not drink any grape juice or eat fresh grapes or raisins. ⁴ All the days of his separation, he is not to eat anything that comes from the grapevine, not even the seeds or skins. ⁵ For the entire period of his vow of separation, no razor shall pass over his head. He must be holy until the time of his separation to the LORD is complete; he must let the hair of his head grow long. ⁶ Throughout the days of his separation to the LORD, he must not go near a dead body. ⁷ Even if his father or mother or brother or sister should die, he is not to defile himself, because the crown of consecration to his God is upon his head. ⁸ Throughout the time of his separation, he is holy to the LORD. ⁹ If someone suddenly dies in his presence and defiles his consecrated head of hair, he must shave his head on the day of his cleansing—the seventh day. ¹⁰ On the eighth day he must bring two turtledoves or two young pigeons to the priest at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting. ¹¹ And the priest is to offer one as a sin offering and the other as a burnt offering to make atonement for him, because he has sinned by being in the presence of the dead body. On that day he must consecrate his head again. ¹² He must rededicate his time of separation to the LORD and bring a year-old male lamb as a guilt offering. But the preceding days shall not be counted, because his separation was defiled. ¹³ Now this is the law of the Nazirite when his time of separation is complete: He must be brought to the entrance to the Tent of Meeting, ¹⁴ and he is to present an offering to the LORD of an unblemished year-old male lamb as a burnt offering, an unblemished year-old female lamb as a sin offering, and an unblemished ram as a peace offering— ¹⁵ together with their grain offerings and drink offerings—and a basket of unleavened cakes made from fine flour mixed with oil and unleavened wafers coated with oil. ¹⁶ The priest is to present all these before the LORD and make the sin offering and the burnt offering. ¹⁷ He shall also offer the ram as a peace offering to the LORD, along with the basket of unleavened bread. And the priest is to offer the accompanying grain offering and drink offering. ¹⁸ Then at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting, the Nazirite is to shave his consecrated head, take the hair, and put it on the fire under the peace offering. ¹⁹ And the priest is to take the boiled shoulder from the ram, one unleavened cake from the basket, and one unleavened wafer, and put them into the hands of the Nazirite who has just shaved the hair of his consecration. ²⁰ The priest shall then wave them as a wave offering before the LORD. This is a holy portion for the priest, in addition to the breast of the wave offering and the thigh that was presented. After that, the Nazirite may drink wine. ²¹ This is the law of the Nazirite who vows his offering to the LORD for his separation, in addition to whatever else he can afford; he must fulfill whatever vow he makes, according to the law of his separation.”

⁵ For behold, you will conceive and give birth to a son. And no razor shall come over his head, because the boy will be a Nazirite to God from the womb, and he will begin the deliverance of Israel from the hand of the Philistines.”

⁷ But he said to me, ‘Behold, you will conceive and give birth to a son. Now, therefore, do not drink wine or strong drink, and do not eat anything unclean, because the boy will be a Nazirite to God from the womb until the day of his death.’”

¹⁷ Samson told her all that was in his heart: “My hair has never been cut, because I have been a Nazirite to God from my mother’s womb. If I am shaved, my strength will leave me, and I will become as weak as any other man.”

¹² So Jesse sent for his youngest son and brought him in. He was ruddy, with beautiful eyes and a handsome appearance. And the LORD said, “Rise and anoint him, for he is the one.”

⁷ Purify me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.

¹² Then our sons will be like plants nurtured in their youth, our daughters like corner pillars carved to adorn a palace.

¹⁰ My beloved is dazzling and ruddy, outstanding among ten thousand.

¹⁵ And at the end of ten days, they looked healthier and better nourished than all the young men who were eating the king’s food.

¹¹ I raised up prophets from your sons and Nazirites from your young men. Is this not true, O children of Israel?” declares the LORD. ¹² “But you made the Nazirites drink wine and commanded the prophets not to prophesy.

¹⁵ for he will be great in the sight of the Lord. He shall never take wine or strong drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even from his mother’s womb.

¹⁹ So Naomi and Ruth traveled until they came to Bethlehem. When they entered Bethlehem, the whole city was stirred because of them, and the women of the city exclaimed, “Can this be Naomi?” ²⁰ “Do not call me Naomi,” she replied. “Call me Mara, because the Almighty has dealt quite bitterly with me.

¹² When they lifted up their eyes from afar, they could barely recognize Job. They began to weep aloud, and each man tore his robe and threw dust in the air over his head.

²⁰ My skin and flesh cling to my bones; I have escaped by the skin of my teeth.

¹⁷ Night pierces my bones, and my gnawing pains never rest. ¹⁸ With great force He grasps my garment; He seizes me by the collar of my tunic. ¹⁹ He throws me into the mud, and I have become like dust and ashes.

³⁰ My skin grows black and peels, and my bones burn with fever.

²¹ His flesh wastes away from sight, and his hidden bones protrude.

⁴ For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was drained as in the summer heat. Selah

³ There is no soundness in my body because of Your anger; there is no rest in my bones because of my sin.

³ For my days vanish like smoke, and my bones burn like glowing embers. ⁴ My heart is afflicted, and withered like grass; I even forget to eat my bread. ⁵ Through my loud groaning my flesh clings to my bones.

¹¹ My days are like lengthening shadows, and I wither away like grass.

⁸³ Though I am like a wineskin dried up by smoke, I do not forget Your statutes.

¹⁴ Just as many were appalled at Him—His appearance was disfigured beyond that of any man, and His form was marred beyond human likeness—

¹ How the gold has become tarnished, the pure gold has become dull! The gems of the temple lie scattered on every street corner. ² How the precious sons of Zion, once worth their weight in pure gold, are now esteemed as jars of clay, the work of a potter’s hands!

¹⁰ Our skin is as hot as an oven with fever from our hunger.

⁶ Nations writhe in horror before them; every face turns pale.

¹⁰ She is emptied! Yes, she is desolate and laid waste! Hearts melt, knees knock, bodies tremble, and every face grows pale!

³⁹ Those of you who survive in the lands of your enemies will waste away in their iniquity and will decay in the sins of their fathers.

⁴ “They will die from deadly diseases. They will not be mourned or buried, but will lie like dung on the ground. They will be finished off by sword and famine, and their corpses will become food for the birds of the air and beasts of the earth.”

²³ Your turbans will remain on your heads and your sandals on your feet. You will not mourn or weep, but you will waste away because of your sins, and you will groan among yourselves.

¹⁰ Now as for you, son of man, tell the house of Israel that this is what they have said: ‘Our transgressions and our sins are heavy upon us, and we are wasting away because of them! How can we live?’

⁴⁸ Streams of tears flow from my eyes over the destruction of the daughter of my people.

³ Even jackals offer their breasts to nurse their young, but the daughter of my people has become cruel, like an ostrich in the wilderness.

²¹ They have provoked My jealousy by that which is not God; they have enraged Me with their worthless idols. So I will make them jealous by those who are not a people; I will make them angry by a nation without understanding. ²² For a fire has been kindled by My anger, and it burns to the depths of Sheol; it consumes the earth and its produce, and scorches the foundations of the mountains. ²³ I will heap disasters upon them; I will spend My arrows against them. ²⁴ They will be wasted from hunger and ravaged by pestilence and bitter plague; I will send the fangs of wild beasts against them, with the venom of vipers that slither in the dust. ²⁵ Outside, the sword will take their children, and inside, terror will strike the young man and the young woman, the infant and the gray-haired man.

¹¹ But I am full of the LORD’s wrath; I am tired of holding it back. “Pour it out on the children in the street, and on the young men gathered together. For both husband and wife will be captured, the old and the very old alike. ¹² Their houses will be turned over to others, their fields and wives as well, for I will stretch out My hand against the inhabitants of the land,” declares the LORD.

²⁰ Therefore this is what the Lord GOD says: Behold, My anger and My fury will be poured out on this place, on man and beast, on the trees of the field and the produce of the land, and it will burn and not be extinguished.

⁹ Should I not punish them for these things? declares the LORD. Should I not avenge Myself on such a nation as this?” ¹⁰ I will take up a weeping and wailing for the mountains, a dirge over the wilderness pasture, for they have been scorched so no one passes through, and the lowing of cattle is not heard. Both the birds of the air and the beasts have fled; they have gone away. ¹¹ “And I will make Jerusalem a heap of rubble, a haunt for jackals; and I will make the cities of Judah a desolation, without inhabitant.”

¹⁴ I will smash them against one another, fathers and sons alike, declares the LORD. I will allow no mercy or pity or compassion to keep Me from destroying them.’”

¹⁵ Therefore this is what the LORD says about the prophets who prophesy in My name: I did not send them, yet they say, ‘No sword or famine will touch this land.’ By sword and famine these very prophets will meet their end! ¹⁶ And the people to whom they prophesy will be thrown into the streets of Jerusalem because of famine and sword. There will be no one to bury them or their wives, their sons or their daughters. I will pour out their own evil upon them.

¹ Then the LORD said to me: “Even if Moses and Samuel should stand before Me, My heart would not go out to this people. Send them from My presence, and let them go. ² If they ask you, ‘Where shall we go?’ you are to tell them that this is what the LORD says: ‘Those destined for death, to death; those destined for the sword, to the sword; those destined for famine, to famine; and those destined for captivity, to captivity.’ ³ I will appoint over them four kinds of destroyers, declares the LORD: the sword to kill, the dogs to drag away, and the birds of the air and beasts of the earth to devour and destroy. ⁴ I will make them a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth because of what Manasseh son of Hezekiah king of Judah did in Jerusalem.

²⁷ But if you do not listen to Me to keep the Sabbath day holy by not carrying a load while entering the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day, then I will kindle an unquenchable fire in its gates to consume the citadels of Jerusalem.’”

³ saying, ‘Hear the word of the LORD, O kings of Judah and residents of Jerusalem. This is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: I am going to bring such disaster on this place that the ears of all who hear of it will ring, ⁴ because they have abandoned Me and made this a foreign place. They have burned incense in this place to other gods that neither they nor their fathers nor the kings of Judah have ever known. They have filled this place with the blood of the innocent. ⁵ They have built high places to Baal on which to burn their children in the fire as offerings to Baal—something I never commanded or mentioned, nor did it even enter My mind. ⁶ So behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when this place will no longer be called Topheth or the Valley of Ben-hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter. ⁷ And in this place I will ruin the plans of Judah and Jerusalem. I will make them fall by the sword before their enemies, by the hands of those who seek their lives, and I will give their carcasses as food to the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth. ⁸ I will make this city a desolation and an object of scorn. All who pass by will be appalled and will scoff at all her wounds. ⁹ I will make them eat the flesh of their sons and daughters, and they will eat one another’s flesh in the siege and distress inflicted on them by their enemies who seek their lives.’ ¹⁰ Then you are to shatter the jar in the presence of the men who accompany you, ¹¹ and you are to proclaim to them that this is what the LORD of Hosts says: I will shatter this nation and this city, like one shatters a potter’s jar that can never again be repaired. They will bury the dead in Topheth until there is no more room to bury them.

¹⁴ I will punish you as your deeds deserve, declares the LORD. I will kindle a fire in your forest that will consume everything around you.’”

¹⁹ Behold, the storm of the LORD has gone out with fury, a whirlwind swirling down upon the heads of the wicked. ²⁰ The anger of the LORD will not turn back until He has fully accomplished the purposes of His heart. In the days to come you will understand this clearly.

⁸ But like the bad figs, so bad they cannot be eaten,’ says the LORD, ‘so will I deal with Zedekiah king of Judah, his officials, and the remnant of Jerusalem—those remaining in this land and those living in the land of Egypt. ⁹ I will make them a horror and an offense to all the kingdoms of the earth, a disgrace and an object of scorn, ridicule, and cursing wherever I have banished them. ¹⁰ And I will send against them sword and famine and plague, until they have perished from the land that I gave to them and their fathers.’”

⁸ The LORD determined to destroy the wall of the Daughter of Zion. He stretched out a measuring line and did not withdraw His hand from destroying. He made the ramparts and walls lament; together they waste away.

¹⁷ The LORD has done what He planned; He has accomplished His decree, which He ordained in days of old; He has overthrown you without pity. He has let the enemy gloat over you and exalted the horn of your foes.

²² O Daughter of Zion, your punishment is complete; He will not prolong your exile. But He will punish your iniquity, O Daughter of Edom; He will expose your sins.

⁴⁷ Say to the forest of the Negev: Hear the word of the LORD! This is what the Lord GOD says: I am about to ignite in you a fire, and it will devour all your trees, both green and dry. The blazing flame will not be quenched, and by it every face from south to north will be scorched. ⁴⁸ Then all people will see that I, the LORD, have kindled it; it will not be quenched.”

³¹ So I have poured out My indignation upon them and consumed them with the fire of My fury. I have brought their ways down upon their own heads, declares the Lord GOD.”

⁶ But did not My words and My statutes, which I commanded My servants the prophets, overtake your fathers? They repented and said, ‘Just as the LORD of Hosts purposed to do to us according to our ways and deeds, so He has done to us.’”

²² For these are the days of vengeance, to fulfill all that is written.

²⁴ So all the nations will ask, ‘Why has the LORD done such a thing to this land? Why this great outburst of anger?’ ²⁵ And the people will answer, ‘It is because they abandoned the covenant of the LORD, the God of their fathers, which He made with them when He brought them out of the land of Egypt. ²⁶ They went and served other gods, and they worshiped gods they had not known—gods that the LORD had not given to them. ²⁷ Therefore the anger of the LORD burned against this land, and He brought upon it every curse written in this book. ²⁸ The LORD uprooted them from their land in His anger, rage, and great wrath, and He cast them into another land, where they are today.’

⁸ And when this temple has become a heap of rubble, all who pass by it will be appalled and will hiss and say, ‘Why has the LORD done such a thing to this land and to this temple?’ ⁹ And others will answer, ‘Because they have forsaken the LORD their God who brought their fathers out of the land of Egypt, and have embraced other gods, worshiping and serving them—because of this, the LORD has brought all this disaster upon them.’”

⁴ For behold, the kings assembled; they all advanced together. ⁵ They saw and were astounded; they fled in terror. ⁶ Trembling seized them there, anguish like a woman in labor.

¹³ Behold, I am against you who dwell above the valley, atop the rocky plateau—declares the LORD—you who say, “Who can come against us? Who can enter our dwellings?”

²⁰ “For long ago you broke your yoke and tore off your chains, saying, ‘I will not serve!’ Indeed, on every high hill and under every green tree you lay down as a prostitute.

³¹ The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests rule by their own authority. My people love it so, but what will you do in the end?

¹³ “For from the least of them to the greatest, all are greedy for gain; from prophet to priest, all practice deceit.

¹⁴ “The prophets are prophesying lies in My name,” replied the LORD. “I did not send them or appoint them or speak to them. They are prophesying to you a false vision, a worthless divination, the futility and delusion of their own minds.

¹¹ “For both prophet and priest are ungodly; even in My house I have found their wickedness,” declares the LORD. ¹² “Therefore their path will become slick; they will be driven away into the darkness and fall into it. For I will bring disaster upon them in the year of their punishment,” declares the LORD. ¹³ “Among the prophets of Samaria I saw an offensive thing: They prophesied by Baal and led My people Israel astray. ¹⁴ And among the prophets of Jerusalem I have seen a horrible thing: They commit adultery and walk in lies. They strengthen the hands of evildoers, so that no one turns his back on wickedness. They are all like Sodom to Me; the people of Jerusalem are like Gomorrah.” ¹⁵ Therefore this is what the LORD of Hosts says concerning the prophets: “I will feed them wormwood and give them poisoned water to drink, for from the prophets of Jerusalem ungodliness has spread throughout the land.” ¹⁶ This is what the LORD of Hosts says: “Do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you. They are filling you with false hopes. They speak visions from their own minds, not from the mouth of the LORD. ¹⁷ They keep saying to those who despise Me, ‘The LORD says that you will have peace,’ and to everyone who walks in the stubbornness of his own heart, ‘No harm will come to you.’ ¹⁸ But which of them has stood in the council of the LORD to see and hear His word? Who has given heed to His word and obeyed it? ¹⁹ Behold, the storm of the LORD has gone out with fury, a whirlwind swirling down upon the heads of the wicked. ²⁰ The anger of the LORD will not turn back until He has fully accomplished the purposes of His heart. In the days to come you will understand this clearly. ²¹ I did not send these prophets, yet they have run with their message; I did not speak to them, yet they have prophesied.

⁸ and as soon as he had finished telling all the people everything the LORD had commanded him to say, the priests and prophets and all the people seized him, shouting, “You must surely die! ⁹ How dare you prophesy in the name of the LORD that this house will become like Shiloh and this city will be desolate and deserted!” And all the people assembled against Jeremiah in the house of the LORD.

¹⁴ The visions of your prophets were empty and deceptive; they did not expose your guilt to ward off your captivity. The burdens they envisioned for you were empty and misleading.

²⁶ Her priests do violence to My law and profane My holy things. They make no distinction between the holy and the common, and they fail to distinguish between the clean and the unclean. They disregard My Sabbaths, so that I am profaned among them. ²⁷ Her officials within her are like wolves tearing their prey, shedding blood, and destroying lives for dishonest gain. ²⁸ Her prophets whitewash these deeds by false visions and lying divinations, saying, ‘This is what the Lord GOD says,’ when the LORD has not spoken.

¹¹ Her leaders judge for a bribe, her priests teach for a price, and her prophets practice divination for money. Yet they lean upon the LORD, saying, “Is not the LORD among us? No disaster can come upon us.” ¹² Therefore, because of you, Zion will be plowed like a field, Jerusalem will become a heap of rubble, and the temple mount a wooded ridge.

³ Her princes are roaring lions; her judges are evening wolves, leaving nothing for the morning. ⁴ Her prophets are reckless, faithless men. Her priests profane the sanctuary; they do violence to the law.

³¹ So you testify against yourselves that you are the sons of those who murdered the prophets.

³³ You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape the sentence of hell? ³⁴ Because of this, I am sending you prophets and wise men and teachers. Some of them you will kill and crucify, and others you will flog in your synagogues and persecute in town after town. ³⁵ And so upon you will come all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. ³⁶ Truly I tell you, all these things will come upon this generation. ³⁷ O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those sent to her, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were unwilling!

⁴⁷ Woe to you! You build tombs for the prophets, but it was your fathers who killed them. ⁴⁸ So you are witnesses consenting to the deeds of your fathers: They killed the prophets, and you build their tombs. ⁴⁹ Because of this, the wisdom of God said, ‘I will send them prophets and apostles; some of them they will kill and others they will persecute.’ ⁵⁰ As a result, this generation will be charged with the blood of all the prophets that has been shed since the foundation of the world, ⁵¹ from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who was killed between the altar and the sanctuary. Yes, I tell you, all of it will be charged to this generation.

⁵² Which of the prophets did your fathers fail to persecute? They even killed those who foretold the coming of the Righteous One. And now you are His betrayers and murderers—

¹⁵ who killed both the Lord Jesus and their own prophets, and drove us out as well. They are displeasing to God and hostile to all men, ¹⁶ hindering us from telling the Gentiles how they may be saved. As a result, they continue to heap up their sins to full capacity; the utmost wrath has come upon them.

¹⁶ Anyone in the open field who touches someone who has been killed by the sword or has died of natural causes, or anyone who touches a human bone or a grave, will be unclean for seven days.

³³ Do not pollute the land where you live, for bloodshed pollutes the land, and no atonement can be made for the land on which the blood is shed, except by the blood of the one who shed it.

²⁸ The LORD will afflict you with madness, blindness, and confusion of mind, ²⁹ and at noon you will grope about like a blind man in the darkness. You will not prosper in your ways. Day after day you will be oppressed and plundered, with no one to save you.

¹⁵ When you spread out your hands in prayer, I will hide My eyes from you; even though you multiply your prayers, I will not listen. Your hands are covered with blood.

¹⁰ For the LORD has poured out on you a spirit of deep sleep. He has shut your eyes, O prophets; He has covered your heads, O seers. ¹¹ And the entire vision will be to you like the words sealed in a scroll. If it is handed to someone to read, he will say, “I cannot, because it is sealed.” ¹² Or if the scroll is handed to one unable to read, he will say, “I cannot read.”

¹⁰ Israel’s watchmen are blind, they are all oblivious; they are all mute dogs, they cannot bark; they are dreamers lying around, loving to slumber.

⁹ Therefore justice is far from us, and righteousness does not reach us. We hope for light, but there is darkness; for brightness, but we walk in gloom. ¹⁰ Like the blind, we feel our way along the wall, groping like those without eyes. We stumble at midday as in the twilight; among the vigorous we are like the dead. ¹¹ We all growl like bears and moan like doves. We hope for justice, but find none, for salvation, but it is far from us.

³⁴ Moreover, your skirts are stained with the blood of the innocent poor, though you did not find them breaking in. But in spite of all these things

² Cursing and lying, murder and stealing, and adultery are rampant; one act of bloodshed follows another.

⁶ Therefore night will come over you without visions, and darkness without divination. The sun will set on these prophets, and the daylight will turn black over them. ⁷ Then the seers will be ashamed and the diviners will be disgraced. They will all cover their mouths because there is no answer from God.”

¹⁴ Disregard them! They are blind guides. If a blind man leads a blind man, both will fall into a pit.”

¹⁸ They are darkened in their understanding and alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardness of their hearts.

⁴⁵ A diseased person must wear torn clothes and let his hair hang loose, and he must cover his mouth and cry out, ‘Unclean, unclean!’ ⁴⁶ As long as he has the infection, he remains unclean. He must live alone in a place outside the camp.

⁷ Cursed be their anger, for it is strong, and their wrath, for it is cruel! I will disperse them in Jacob and scatter them in Israel.

³³ But I will scatter you among the nations and will draw out a sword after you as your land becomes desolate and your cities are laid waste. ³⁴ Then the land shall enjoy its Sabbaths all the days it lies desolate, while you are in the land of your enemies. At that time the land will rest and enjoy its Sabbaths. ³⁵ As long as it lies desolate, the land will have the rest it did not receive during the Sabbaths when you lived in it. ³⁶ As for those of you who survive, I will send a faintness into their hearts in the lands of their enemies, so that even the sound of a windblown leaf will put them to flight. And they will flee as one flees the sword, and fall when no one pursues them. ³⁷ They will stumble over one another as before the sword, though no one is behind them. So you will not be able to stand against your enemies. ³⁸ You will perish among the nations, and the land of your enemies will consume you. ³⁹ Those of you who survive in the lands of your enemies will waste away in their iniquity and will decay in the sins of their fathers.

²⁵ The LORD will cause you to be defeated before your enemies. You will march out against them in one direction but flee from them in seven. You will be an object of horror to all the kingdoms of the earth.

⁶⁴ Then the LORD will scatter you among all the nations, from one end of the earth to the other, and there you will worship other gods, gods of wood and stone, which neither you nor your fathers have known. ⁶⁵ Among those nations you will find no repose, not even a resting place for the sole of your foot. There the LORD will give you a trembling heart, failing eyes, and a despairing soul.

²⁶ I would have said that I would cut them to pieces and blot out their memory from mankind,

¹⁸ The captain of the guard also took away Seraiah the chief priest, Zephaniah the priest of second rank, and the three doorkeepers. ¹⁹ Of those still in the city, he took a court official who had been appointed over the men of war, as well as five royal advisors. He also took the scribe of the captain of the army, who had enlisted the people of the land, and sixty men who were found in the city. ²⁰ Nebuzaradan captain of the guard took them and brought them to the king of Babylon at Riblah. ²¹ There at Riblah in the land of Hamath, the king of Babylon struck them down and put them to death. So Judah was taken into exile, away from its own land.

¹⁷ So He brought up against them the king of the Chaldeans, who put their young men to the sword in the sanctuary, sparing neither young men nor young women, neither elderly nor infirm. God gave them all into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar,

⁴⁴ Nevertheless He heard their cry; He took note of their distress.

¹⁴ So the LORD will cut off Israel’s head and tail, both palm branch and reed in a single day. ¹⁵ The head is the elder and honorable man, and the tail is the prophet who teaches lies. ¹⁶ For those who guide this people mislead them, and those they mislead are swallowed up.

⁴ I will make them a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth because of what Manasseh son of Hezekiah king of Judah did in Jerusalem.

⁹ I will make them a horror and an offense to all the kingdoms of the earth, a disgrace and an object of scorn, ridicule, and cursing wherever I have banished them.

⁹ It will not be like the covenant I made with their fathers when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, because they did not abide by My covenant, and I disregarded them, declares the Lord.

⁷ Now the king of Egypt did not march out of his land again, because the king of Babylon had taken all his territory, from the Brook of Egypt to the Euphrates River.

⁵ Those who made Cush their hope and Egypt their boast will be dismayed and ashamed.

¹ “Woe to the rebellious children,” declares the LORD, “to those who carry out a plan that is not Mine, who form an alliance, but against My will, heaping up sin upon sin. ² They set out to go down to Egypt without asking My advice, to seek shelter under Pharaoh’s protection and take refuge in Egypt’s shade. ³ But Pharaoh’s protection will become your shame, and the refuge of Egypt’s shade your disgrace. ⁴ For though their princes are at Zoan and their envoys have arrived in Hanes, ⁵ everyone will be put to shame because of a people useless to them. They cannot be of help; they are good for nothing but shame and reproach.” ⁶ This is the burden against the beasts of the Negev: Through a land of hardship and distress, of lioness and lion, of viper and flying serpent, they carry their wealth on the backs of donkeys and their treasures on the humps of camels, to a people of no profit to them. ⁷ Egypt’s help is futile and empty; therefore I have called her Rahab Who Sits Still.

¹ Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help, who rely on horses, who trust in their abundance of chariots and in their multitude of horsemen. They do not look to the Holy One of Israel; they do not seek the LORD. ² Yet He too is wise and brings disaster; He does not call back His words. He will rise up against the house of the wicked and against the allies of evildoers. ³ But the Egyptians are men, not God; their horses are flesh, not spirit. When the LORD stretches out His hand, the helper will stumble, and the one he helps will fall; both will perish together.

¹⁸ Now what will you gain on your way to Egypt to drink the waters of the Nile? What will you gain on your way to Assyria to drink the waters of the Euphrates?

³⁶ How unstable you are, constantly changing your ways! You will be disappointed by Egypt just as you were by Assyria.

²⁰ “The harvest has passed, the summer has ended, but we have not been saved.”

⁷ “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says that you are to tell the king of Judah, who sent you to Me: Behold, Pharaoh’s army, which has marched out to help you, will go back to its own land of Egypt. ⁸ Then the Chaldeans will return and fight against this city. They will capture it and burn it down. ⁹ This is what the LORD says: Do not deceive yourselves by saying, ‘The Chaldeans will go away for good,’ for they will not! ¹⁰ Indeed, if you were to strike down the entire army of the Chaldeans that is fighting against you, and only wounded men remained in their tents, they would still get up and burn this city down.”

⁷ In the days of her affliction and wandering Jerusalem remembers all the treasures that were hers in days of old. When her people fell into enemy hands she received no help. Her enemies looked upon her, laughing at her downfall.

¹⁹ I called out to my lovers, but they have betrayed me. My priests and elders perished in the city while they searched for food to keep themselves alive.

⁶ Then all the people of Egypt will know that I am the LORD. For you were only a staff of reeds to the house of Israel. ⁷ When Israel took hold of you with their hands, you splintered, tearing all their shoulders; when they leaned on you, you broke, and their backs were wrenched.

¹⁶ Egypt will never again be an object of trust for the house of Israel, but will remind them of their iniquity in turning to the Egyptians. Then they will know that I am the Lord GOD.”

¹⁴ Against whom has the king of Israel come out? Whom are you pursuing? A dead dog? A flea?

⁴ Then the city was breached; and though the Chaldeans had surrounded the city, all the men of war fled by night by way of the gate between the two walls near the king’s garden. They headed toward the Arabah, ⁵ but the army of the Chaldeans pursued the king and overtook him in the plains of Jericho, and all his army was separated from him.

¹⁶ Should I hold my head high, You would hunt me like a lion, and again display Your power against me.

¹¹ May no slanderer be established in the land; may calamity hunt down the man of violence.

¹² “You have observed correctly,” said the LORD, “for I am watching over My word to accomplish it.”

¹⁶ But for now I will send for many fishermen, declares the LORD, and they will catch them. After that I will send for many hunters, and they will hunt them down on every mountain and hill, even from the clefts of the rocks.

⁴ When Zedekiah king of Judah and all the soldiers saw them, they fled. They left the city at night by way of the king’s garden, through the gate between the two walls, and they went out along the route to the Arabah. ⁵ But the army of the Chaldeans pursued them and overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho. They seized him and brought him up to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon at Riblah in the land of Hamath, where he pronounced judgment on him.

³³ For this is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: “The Daughter of Babylon is like a threshing floor at the time it is trampled. In just a little while her harvest time will come.”

⁷ Then the city was breached; and though the Chaldeans had surrounded the city, all the men of war fled the city by night by way of the gate between the two walls near the king’s garden. They headed toward the Arabah, ⁸ but the army of the Chaldeans pursued the king and overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho, and all his army was separated from him. ⁹ The Chaldeans seized the king and brought him up to the king of Babylon at Riblah in the land of Hamath, where he pronounced judgment on Zedekiah.

⁵² Without cause my enemies hunted me like a bird.

² “O son of man, this is what the Lord GOD says to the land of Israel: ‘The end! The end has come upon the four corners of the land. ³ The end is now upon you, and I will unleash My anger against you. I will judge you according to your ways and repay you for all your abominations. ⁴ I will not look on you with pity, nor will I spare you, but I will punish you for your ways and for the abominations among you. Then you will know that I am the LORD.’ ⁵ This is what the Lord GOD says: ‘Disaster! An unprecedented disaster—behold, it is coming! ⁶ The end has come! The end has come! It has roused itself against you. Behold, it has come! ⁷ Doom has come to you, O inhabitants of the land. The time has come; the day is near; there is panic on the mountains instead of shouts of joy. ⁸ Very soon I will pour out My wrath upon you and vent My anger against you; I will judge you according to your ways and repay you for all your abominations. ⁹ I will not look on you with pity, nor will I spare you, but I will punish you for your ways and for the abominations among you. Then you will know that it is I, the LORD, who strikes the blow. ¹⁰ Behold, the day is here! It has come! Doom has gone out, the rod has budded, arrogance has bloomed. ¹¹ Their violence has grown into a rod to punish their wickedness. None of them will remain: none of their multitude, none of their wealth, and nothing of value. ¹² The time has come; the day has arrived. Let the buyer not rejoice and the seller not mourn, for wrath is upon the whole multitude.

²² “Son of man, what is this proverb that you have in the land of Israel: ‘The days go by, and every vision fails’? ²³ Therefore tell them that this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘I will put an end to this proverb, and in Israel they will no longer recite it.’ But say to them: ‘The days are at hand when every vision will be fulfilled.

²⁷ “Son of man, take note that the house of Israel is saying, ‘The vision that he sees is for many years from now; he prophesies about the distant future.’

² “Amos, what do you see?” He asked. “A basket of summer fruit,” I replied. So the LORD said to me, “The end has come for My people Israel; I will no longer spare them.”

⁴⁹ The LORD will bring a nation from afar, from the ends of the earth, to swoop down upon you like an eagle—a nation whose language you will not understand,

²⁶ He lifts a banner for the distant nations and whistles for those at the ends of the earth. Behold—how speedily and swiftly they come! ²⁷ None of them grows weary or stumbles; no one slumbers or sleeps. No belt is loose and no sandal strap is broken. ²⁸ Their arrows are sharpened, and all their bows are strung. The hooves of their horses are like flint; their chariot wheels are like a whirlwind.

¹⁶ “No,” you say, “we will flee on horses.” Therefore you will flee! “We will ride swift horses,” but your pursuers will be faster. ¹⁷ A thousand will flee at the threat of one; at the threat of five you will all flee, until you are left alone like a pole on a mountaintop, like a banner on a hill.

¹³ Behold, he advances like the clouds, his chariots like the whirlwind. His horses are swifter than eagles. Woe to us, for we are ruined!

¹ Put the ram’s horn to your lips! An eagle looms over the house of the LORD, because the people have transgressed My covenant and rebelled against My law.

¹⁴ Escape will fail the swift, the strong will not prevail by his strength, and the mighty will not save his life.

¹ I saw the Lord standing beside the altar, and He said: “Strike the tops of the pillars so that the thresholds shake. Topple them on the heads of all the people, and I will kill the rest with the sword. None of those who flee will get away; none of the fugitives will escape. ² Though they dig down to Sheol, from there My hand will take them; and though they climb up to heaven, from there I will pull them down. ³ Though they hide themselves atop Carmel, there I will track them and seize them; and though they hide from Me at the bottom of the sea, there I will command the serpent to bite them.

⁸ Their horses are swifter than leopards, fiercer than wolves of the night. Their horsemen charge ahead, and their cavalry comes from afar. They fly like a vulture, swooping down to devour.

²⁷ For just as the lightning comes from the east and flashes as far as the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. ²⁸ Wherever there is a carcass, there the vultures will gather.

⁷ Then the LORD God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed the breath of life into his nostrils, and the man became a living being.

³⁰ So if the boy is not with us when I return to your servant, and if my father, whose life is wrapped up in the boy’s life,

³ Here I am. Bear witness against me before the LORD and before His anointed: Whose ox or donkey have I taken? Whom have I cheated or oppressed? From whose hand have I accepted a bribe and closed my eyes? Tell me, and I will restore it to you.”

⁵ Samuel said to them, “The LORD is a witness against you, and His anointed is a witness today, that you have not found anything in my hand.” “He is a witness,” they replied.

⁶ When they arrived, Samuel saw Eliab and said, “Surely here before the LORD is His anointed.”

⁶ So he said to his men, “The LORD forbid that I should do such a thing to my master, the LORD’s anointed. May I never lift my hand against him, since he is the LORD’s anointed.”

¹⁰ Behold, this day you have seen with your own eyes that the LORD delivered you into my hand in the cave. I was told to kill you, but I spared you and said, ‘I will not lift my hand against my lord, since he is the LORD’s anointed.’

⁹ But David said to Abishai, “Do not destroy him, for who can lift a hand against the LORD’s anointed and be guiltless?”

¹⁶ This thing you have done is not good. As surely as the LORD lives, all of you deserve to die, since you did not protect your lord, the LORD’s anointed. Now look around. Where are the king’s spear and water jug that were by his head?”

¹⁴ So David asked him, “Why were you not afraid to lift your hand to destroy the LORD’s anointed?”

²¹ O mountains of Gilboa, may you have no dew or rain, no fields yielding offerings of grain. For there the shield of the mighty was defiled, the shield of Saul, no longer anointed with oil.

³ But the people pleaded, “You must not go out! For if we have to flee, they will pay no attention to us. Even if half of us die, they will not care; but you are worth ten thousand of us. It is better for now if you support us from the city.”

²¹ But Abishai son of Zeruiah said, “Shouldn’t Shimei be put to death for this, because he cursed the LORD’s anointed?”

²⁰ I have found My servant David; with My sacred oil I have anointed him. ²¹ My hand will sustain him; surely My arm will strengthen him.

⁵ But the army of the Chaldeans pursued them and overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho. They seized him and brought him up to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon at Riblah in the land of Hamath, where he pronounced judgment on him.

⁸ but the army of the Chaldeans pursued the king and overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho, and all his army was separated from him.

⁹ Her gates have sunk into the ground; He has destroyed and shattered their bars. Her king and her princes are exiled among the nations, the law is no more, and even her prophets find no vision from the LORD.

¹³ But I will spread My net over him, and he will be caught in My snare. I will bring him to Babylon, the land of the Chaldeans; yet he will not see it, and there he will die.

¹⁸ He despised the oath by breaking the covenant. Seeing that he gave his hand in pledge yet did all these things, he will not escape!’

⁴ When the nations heard of him, he was trapped in their pit. With hooks they led him away to the land of Egypt. ⁵ When she saw that she had waited in vain, that her hope was lost, she took another of her cubs and made him a young lion. ⁶ He prowled among the lions, and became a young lion. After learning to tear his prey, he devoured men. ⁷ He broke down their strongholds and devastated their cities. The land and everything in it shuddered at the sound of his roaring. ⁸ Then the nations set out against him from the provinces on every side. They spread their net over him; he was trapped in their pit.

²⁸ These are the sons of Dishan: Uz and Aran.

¹⁹ For the LORD humbled Judah because Ahaz king of Israel had thrown off restraint in Judah and had been most unfaithful to the LORD.

¹ There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job. And this man was blameless and upright, fearing God and shunning evil.

³ With cunning they scheme against Your people and conspire against those You cherish, ⁴ saying, “Come, let us erase them as a nation; may the name of Israel be remembered no more.” ⁵ For with one mind they plot together, they form an alliance against You— ⁶ the tents of Edom and the Ishmaelites, of Moab and the Hagrites, ⁷ of Gebal, Ammon, and Amalek, of Philistia with the people of Tyre. ⁸ Even Assyria has joined them, lending strength to the sons of Lot. Selah ⁹ Do to them as You did to Midian, as to Sisera and Jabin at the River Kishon, ¹⁰ who perished at Endor and became like dung on the ground. ¹¹ Make their nobles like Oreb and Zeeb, and all their princes like Zebah and Zalmunna, ¹² who said, “Let us possess for ourselves the pastures of God.”

⁷ Remember, O LORD, the sons of Edom on the day Jerusalem fell: “Destroy it,” they said, “tear it down to its foundations!”

⁹ Rejoice, O young man, while you are young, and let your heart be glad in the days of your youth. Walk in the ways of your heart and in the sight of your eyes, but know that for all these things God will bring you to judgment.

¹ Come near, O nations, to listen; pay attention, O peoples. Let the earth hear, and all that fills it, the world and all that springs from it. ² The LORD is angry with all the nations and furious with all their armies. He will devote them to destruction; He will give them over to slaughter. ³ Their slain will be left unburied, and the stench of their corpses will rise; the mountains will flow with their blood. ⁴ All the stars of heaven will be dissolved. The skies will be rolled up like a scroll, and all their stars will fall like withered leaves from the vine, like foliage from the fig tree. ⁵ When My sword has drunk its fill in the heavens, then it will come down upon Edom, upon the people I have devoted to destruction. ⁶ The sword of the LORD is bathed in blood. It drips with fat—with the blood of lambs and goats, with the fat of the kidneys of rams. For the LORD has a sacrifice in Bozrah, a great slaughter in the land of Edom. ⁷ And the wild oxen will fall with them, the young bulls with the strong ones. Their land will be drenched with blood, and their soil will be soaked with fat. ⁸ For the LORD has a day of vengeance, a year of recompense for the cause of Zion. ⁹ Edom’s streams will be turned to tar, and her soil to sulfur; her land will become a blazing pitch. ¹⁰ It will not be quenched—day or night. Its smoke will ascend forever. From generation to generation it will lie desolate; no one will ever again pass through it. ¹¹ The desert owl and screech owl will possess it, and the great owl and raven will dwell in it. The LORD will stretch out over Edom a measuring line of chaos and a plumb line of destruction. ¹² No nobles will be left to proclaim a king, and all her princes will come to nothing. ¹³ Her towers will be overgrown with thorns, her fortresses with thistles and briers. She will become a haunt for jackals, an abode for ostriches. ¹⁴ The desert creatures will meet with hyenas, and one wild goat will call to another. There the night creature will settle and find her place of repose. ¹⁵ There the owl will make her nest; she will lay and hatch her eggs and gather her brood under her shadow. Even there the birds of prey will gather, each with its mate. ¹⁶ Search and read the scroll of the LORD: Not one of these will go missing, not one will lack her mate, because He has ordered it by His mouth, and He will gather them by His Spirit. ¹⁷ He has allotted their portion; His hand has distributed it by measure. They will possess it forever; they will dwell in it from generation to generation.

¹ Who is this coming from Edom, from Bozrah with crimson-stained garments? Who is this robed in splendor, marching in the greatness of His strength? “It is I, proclaiming vindication, mighty to save.” ² Why are Your clothes red, and Your garments like one who treads the winepress? ³ “I have trodden the winepress alone, and no one from the nations was with Me. I trampled them in My anger and trod them down in My fury; their blood spattered My garments, and all My clothes were stained. ⁴ For the day of vengeance was in My heart, and the year of My redemption had come. ⁵ I looked, but there was no one to help; I was appalled that no one assisted. So My arm brought Me salvation, and My own wrath upheld Me. ⁶ I trampled the nations in My anger; in My wrath I made them drunk and poured out their blood on the ground.”

¹⁵ This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, said to me: “Take from My hand this cup of the wine of wrath, and make all the nations to whom I send you drink from it. ¹⁶ And they will drink and stagger and go out of their minds, because of the sword that I will send among them.” ¹⁷ So I took the cup from the LORD’s hand and made all the nations drink from it, each one to whom the LORD had sent me, ¹⁸ to make them a ruin, an object of horror and contempt and cursing, as they are to this day—Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, its kings and officials; ¹⁹ Pharaoh king of Egypt, his officials, his leaders, and all his people; ²⁰ all the mixed tribes; all the kings of Uz; all the kings of the Philistines: Ashkelon, Gaza, Ekron, and the remnant of Ashdod; ²¹ Edom, Moab, and the Ammonites; ²² all the kings of Tyre and Sidon; the kings of the coastlands across the sea; ²³ Dedan, Tema, Buz, and all who cut the corners of their hair; ²⁴ all the kings of Arabia, and all the kings of the mixed tribes who dwell in the desert; ²⁵ all the kings of Zimri, Elam, and Media; ²⁶ all the kings of the north, both near and far, one after another—all the kingdoms on the face of the earth. And after all of them, the king of Sheshach will drink it too. ²⁷ “Then you are to tell them that this is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: ‘Drink, get drunk, and vomit. Fall down and never get up again, because of the sword I will send among you.’ ²⁸ If they refuse to take the cup from your hand and drink it, you are to tell them that this is what the LORD of Hosts says: ‘You most certainly must drink it! ²⁹ For behold, I am beginning to bring disaster on the city that bears My Name, so how could you possibly go unpunished? You will not go unpunished, for I am calling down a sword upon all the inhabitants of the earth, declares the LORD of Hosts.’

¹² For this is what the LORD says: “If those who do not deserve to drink the cup must drink it, can you possibly remain unpunished? You will not go unpunished, for you must drink it too.

⁶ For this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘Because you clapped your hands and stomped your feet and rejoiced over the land of Israel with a heart full of contempt,

⁸ This is what the Lord GOD says: ‘Because Moab and Seir said, “Look, the house of Judah is like all the other nations,”

¹² This is what the Lord GOD says: ‘Because Edom acted vengefully against the house of Judah, and in so doing incurred grievous guilt, ¹³ therefore this is what the Lord GOD says: I will stretch out My hand against Edom and cut off from it both man and beast. I will make it a wasteland, and from Teman to Dedan they will fall by the sword. ¹⁴ I will take My vengeance on Edom by the hand of My people Israel, and they will deal with Edom according to My anger and wrath. Then they will know My vengeance, declares the Lord GOD.’

² “Son of man, because Tyre has said of Jerusalem, ‘Aha! The gate to the nations is broken; it has swung open to me; now that she lies in ruins I will be filled,’

³ and declare that this is what the Lord GOD says: Behold, I am against you, O Mount Seir. I will stretch out My hand against you and make you a desolate waste. ⁴ I will turn your cities into ruins, and you will become a desolation. Then you will know that I am the LORD. ⁵ Because you harbored an ancient hatred and delivered the Israelites over to the sword in the time of their disaster at the final stage of their punishment, ⁶ therefore as surely as I live, declares the Lord GOD, I will give you over to bloodshed and it will pursue you. Since you did not hate bloodshed, it will pursue you. ⁷ I will make Mount Seir a desolate waste and will cut off from it those who come and go. ⁸ I will fill its mountains with the slain; those killed by the sword will fall on your hills, in your valleys, and in all your ravines. ⁹ I will make you a perpetual desolation, and your cities will not be inhabited. Then you will know that I am the LORD.

¹¹ therefore as surely as I live, declares the Lord GOD, I will treat you according to the anger and jealousy you showed in your hatred against them, and I will make Myself known among them when I judge you. ¹² Then you will know that I, the LORD, have heard every contemptuous word you uttered against the mountains of Israel when you said, ‘They are desolate; they are given to us to devour!’ ¹³ You boasted against Me with your mouth and multiplied your words against Me. I heard it Myself! ¹⁴ This is what the Lord GOD says: While the whole earth rejoices, I will make you desolate. ¹⁵ As you rejoiced when the inheritance of the house of Israel became desolate, so will I do to you. You will become a desolation, O Mount Seir, and so will all of Edom. Then they will know that I am the LORD.

¹¹ This is what the LORD says: “For three transgressions of Edom, even four, I will not revoke My judgment, because he pursued his brother with the sword and stifled all compassion; his anger raged continually, and his fury flamed incessantly.

¹ This is the vision of Obadiah: This is what the Lord GOD says about Edom—We have heard a message from the LORD; an envoy has been sent among the nations to say, “Rise up, and let us go to battle against her!”—

¹⁰ Because of the violence against your brother Jacob, you will be covered with shame and cut off forever. ¹¹ On the day you stood aloof while strangers carried off his wealth and foreigners entered his gate and cast lots for Jerusalem, you were just like one of them. ¹² But you should not gloat in that day, your brother’s day of misfortune, nor rejoice over the people of Judah in the day of their destruction, nor boast proudly in the day of their distress. ¹³ You should not enter the gate of My people in the day of their disaster, nor gloat over their affliction in the day of their disaster, nor loot their wealth in the day of their disaster. ¹⁴ Nor should you stand at the crossroads to cut off their fugitives, nor deliver up their survivors in the day of their distress. ¹⁵ For the Day of the LORD is near for all the nations. As you have done, it will be done to you; your recompense will return upon your own head. ¹⁶ For as you drank on My holy mountain, so all the nations will drink continually. They will drink and gulp it down; they will be as if they had never existed.

¹¹ Depart in shameful nakedness, O dwellers of Shaphir. The dwellers of Zaanan will not come out. Beth-ezel is in mourning; its support is taken from you.

² “I have loved you,” says the LORD. But you ask, “How have You loved us?” “Was not Esau Jacob’s brother?” declares the LORD. “Yet Jacob I have loved, ³ but Esau I have hated, and I have made his mountains a wasteland and left his inheritance to the desert jackals.” ⁴ Though Edom may say, “We have been devastated, but we will rebuild the ruins,” this is what the LORD of Hosts says: “They may build, but I will demolish. They will be called the Land of Wickedness, and a people with whom the LORD is indignant forever.

¹⁵ “Behold, I am coming like a thief. Blessed is the one who remains awake and clothed, so that he will not go naked and let his shame be exposed.”

² “Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her forced labor has been completed; her iniquity has been pardoned. For she has received from the hand of the LORD double for all her sins.”

¹ Awake, awake, clothe yourself with strength, O Zion! Put on your garments of splendor, O Jerusalem, holy city! For the uncircumcised and unclean will no longer enter you.

¹⁸ No longer will violence be heard in your land, nor ruin or destruction within your borders. But you will name your walls Salvation and your gates Praise.

⁴⁰ I will make an everlasting covenant with them: I will never turn away from doing good to them, and I will put My fear in their hearts, so that they will never turn away from Me.

⁸ And I will cleanse them from all the iniquity they have committed against Me, and will forgive all their sins of rebellion against Me.

²⁷ But you, O Jacob My servant, do not be afraid, and do not be dismayed, O Israel. For I will surely save you out of a distant place, your descendants from the land of their captivity! Jacob will return to quiet and ease, with no one to make him afraid. ²⁸ And you, My servant Jacob, do not be afraid, declares the LORD, for I am with you. Though I will completely destroy all the nations to which I have banished you, I will not completely destroy you. Yet I will discipline you justly, and will by no means leave you unpunished.”

²⁰ In those days and at that time, declares the LORD, a search will be made for Israel’s guilt, but there will be none, and for Judah’s sins, but they will not be found; for I will forgive the remnant I preserve.

⁶ The punishment of the daughter of my people is greater than that of Sodom, which was overthrown in an instant without a hand turned to help her.

²¹ So rejoice and be glad, O Daughter of Edom, you who dwell in the land of Uz. Yet the cup will pass to you as well; you will get drunk and expose yourself.

²⁸ Then the nations will know that I the LORD sanctify Israel, when My sanctuary is among them forever.’”

⁴ Though Edom may say, “We have been devastated, but we will rebuild the ruins,” this is what the LORD of Hosts says: “They may build, but I will demolish. They will be called the Land of Wickedness, and a people with whom the LORD is indignant forever.