Jeremiah 13 Cross References - ISV

¹ Jeremiah’s Linen BeltThis is what the LORD told me: “Go and buy a linen belt for yourself, and put it around your waist. But don’t let it get wet.” ² So I bought the belt according to the LORD’s instruction, and put it around my waist.
³ Then this message from the LORD came to me a second time: ⁴ Take the belt that you bought and that is around your waist. Get up and go to the Euphrates, and hide it there in a crevice in the rock.” ⁵ So I went and hid it at the Euphrates, just as the LORD had commanded me.
⁶ After a long time, the LORD told me, “Arise, go to the Euphrates, and get the belt that I commanded you to hide there.” ⁷ I went to the Euphrates and dug it up. I got the belt from the place where I had hidden it. The belt was ruined! It was not good for anything.
⁸ Then this message from the LORD came to me: ⁹ “This is what the LORD says: ‘In the same way I’ll ruin the pride of Judah and the pride of Jerusalem. ¹⁰ This evil people that refuses to listen to my words, that stubbornly pursues their own desires, and that follows other gods to serve and worship them, will be like this belt that is not good for anything. ¹¹ For just as the belt clings tightly to a person’s waist, so I’ve made all the people of Israel and all the people of Judah cling tightly to me,’ declares the LORD. ‘I did this so that they would be my people, name, praise, and glory. But they wouldn’t listen.’
¹² The Wineskins“This is what you’re to tell them: ‘This is what the LORD God of Israel says: “Every wineskin is to be filled with wine.”’ When they say to you, ‘Don’t we know very well that every wineskin is to be filled with wine?’, ¹³ then say to them, ‘This is what the LORD says: “I’m about to make all the inhabitants of this land drunk—the kings who sit on David’s throne, the priests, the prophets, and all the residents of Jerusalem. ¹⁴ I’ll smash them against each other, even fathers against their sons,” declares the LORD. “I’ll have no pity, mercy, or compassion when I destroy them.”’” ¹⁵ Listen and pay attention! Don’t be proud, for the LORD has spoken. ¹⁶ Give glory to the LORD your God before he brings darkness, before your feet stumble on the mountains at twilight. You hope for light, but he turns it into deep darkness. He changes it into heavy gloom. ¹⁷ If you don’t listen, I’ll cry secretly because of your pride. My eyes will cry bitterly, flowing tears, because the LORD’s flock has been taken captive. ¹⁸ Say to the king and the queen mother, “Come take a lowly seat, because your beautiful crowns have fallen off your heads.” ¹⁹ The towns in the Negev will be closed up, and there will be no one to open them. All Judah will be taken into exile and be completely exiled. ²⁰ “Look up and see those who are coming from the north. Where is the flock that was given to you— your beautiful sheep? ²¹ What will you say when the LORD appoints over you as your head those whom you taught to be your allies? Pain will seize you like that seizing a woman about to give birth, will it not? ²² When you say to yourselves, ‘Why have all these things happened to me?’ It’s because of the extent of your iniquity that your skirt has been lifted up, and your heels have suffered violence. ²³ Can an Ethiopian change his skin, or a leopard his spots? Then you who are trained to do evil will also be able to do good. ²⁴ I’ll scatter them like chaff blown away by a desert wind. ²⁵ “This is your fate, the portion I’ve measured out for you,” declares the LORD, “because you have forgotten me and have trusted in false gods. ²⁶ I’ll also pull your skirt up over your face, so your shame will be seen, ²⁷ I’ve seen your detestable behavior: your adulteries, your passionate neighing, your lewd immorality on the hills in the field. How terrible it will be for you, Jerusalem! You are unclean. How much longer will this go on?”

¹¹ For just as the belt clings tightly to a person’s waist, so I’ve made all the people of Israel and all the people of Judah cling tightly to me,’ declares the LORD. ‘I did this so that they would be my people, name, praise, and glory. But they wouldn’t listen.’

¹ The Lesson of the Broken JugThis is what the LORD says: “Go and buy a potter’s clay jug. Take along some of the elders of the people and some of the elders of the priests.

² this is what the LORD says to me: “Make restraints and yokes for yourself and put them on your neck.

¹ The Vision of the Brick“And now Son of Man, you are to take a brick, set it in front of you, and inscribe on it the outline of the city—that is, Jerusalem. ² You are to lay siege against it, build a rampart around it, set a bulwark against it, encircle it with a berm, set up camps against it, and place battering rams around it. ³ Then you are to take a flat, iron plate and set it up as an iron wall between you and the city.
“Next, you are to turn toward it, oppose it, and place it under siege, because you are to lay siege to it. All of this will serve as a sign to the house of Israel.
⁴ “Now as for you, you are to sleep on your left side, symbolically bearing the punishment of the house of Israel while you’re counting the days you’ll be sleeping on your left side to bear symbolically the punishment for their sin. ⁵ I’ve assigned you to sleep this way for 390 days, representing the years they’ve been sinning, as you bear symbolically the punishment of the house of Israel.

¹ God Has Spoken to UsGod, having spoken in former times in fragmentary and varied fashion to our forefathers by the prophets,

⁵ Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not depend on your own understanding.

² at that time the LORD spoke through Amoz’s son Isaiah: “Go loosen the sackcloth that’s around your waist, and take your sandals off your feet.” So that’s what he did: he went around naked and barefoot.

⁸ The Vision of the Edible Scroll“Son of Man, you are to listen to what I tell you. You are never to be rebellious like they are: a rebellious group. Now, open your mouth and eat what I’m giving you…”

² Hosea’s Wife and FamilyWhen a message from the LORD came to Hosea, the LORD told him, “Go marry a prostitute and have children with her, because the land is prostituting itself by departing from the LORD.” ³ So he went out and married Diblaim’s daughter Gomer. She conceived with him and gave birth to a son.

⁶ Then he came to Simon Peter, who asked him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?”
⁷ Jesus answered him, “You don’t realize now what I’m doing, but later on you’ll understand.”

¹⁴ You are my friends, if you do what I command you.

⁸ Then this message from the LORD came to me:

¹ Remembering Jerusalem There we sat down and cried— by the rivers of Babylon— as we remembered Zion.

⁶³ When you finish reading this scroll, tie a rock around it and throw it into the middle of the Euphrates. ⁶⁴ Then say, ‘Babylon will sink like this and won’t rise from the disaster that I’m bringing on her. Her people will be exhausted.’” This concludes the writings of Jeremiah.

¹⁰ Be in pain! Be in labor, you daughter of Zion, like a woman about to give birth, because now you will depart from the city, living in the open fields. To Babylon you will go. There you will be delivered, there the LORD will rescue you from the power of your enemies.”

⁴² The Israelis had done all the work according to all that the LORD had commanded Moses. ⁴³ Moses blessed them when he saw all the work and that they had completed it. They had done it just as the LORD had commanded.

¹⁶ Moses Obeys God’s InstructionsMoses did everything that the LORD had commanded him, so he did.

² “The kingdom from heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding banquet for his son. ³ He sent his servants to call those who had been invited to the wedding, but they refused to come. ⁴ So he sent other servants after saying, ‘Tell those who have been invited, “Look! I’ve prepared my dinner. My oxen and fattened calves have been slaughtered. Everything is ready. Come to the wedding!”’ ⁵ But they paid no attention to this and went away, one to his farm, another to his business. ⁶ The rest grabbed the king’s servants, treated them brutally, and then killed them.

⁵ His mother told the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”
⁶ Now standing there were six stone water jars used for the Jewish rites of purification, each one holding from two to three measures. ⁷ Jesus told the servants, “Fill the jars with water.” So they filled them up to the brim. ⁸ Then he told them, “Now draw some out and take it to the man in charge of the banquet.” So they did.

¹⁹ “And so, King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision. ²⁰ Instead, I first told the people in Damascus and Jerusalem, then all the people in Judea—and after that the gentiles—to repent, turn to God, and perform deeds that are consistent with such repentance.

³ Join me in suffering like a good soldier of the Messiah Jesus.

⁸ By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going.

¹⁷ By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered Isaac—he who had received the promises was about to offer his unique son in sacrifice, ¹⁸ about whom it had been said, “It is through Isaac that descendants will be named for you.” ¹⁹ Abraham was certain that God could raise the dead, and figuratively speaking, he did get Isaac back in this way.

⁶ All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like a filthy rag; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind, our iniquities sweep us away.

¹⁰ This evil people that refuses to listen to my words, that stubbornly pursues their own desires, and that follows other gods to serve and worship them, will be like this belt that is not good for anything.

¹ Two Baskets of FigsAfter Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, had taken Jehoiakim’s son Jeconiah, king of Judah, along with the officials of Judah, the craftsmen, and the smiths from Jerusalem into exile, and had brought them to Babylon, the LORD showed me two baskets of figs placed right in front of the Temple of the LORD. ² One basket contained very good figs like the first figs that ripen on the tree. The other basket contained very bad figs that were too bad to be eaten. ³ The LORD told me, “What do you see?”
I replied, “Figs. The good figs are very good, and the bad figs are very bad. They’re too bad to be eaten.”
⁴ Then this message from the LORD came to me: ⁵ “This is what the LORD God of Israel says: ‘Like these good figs, so I’ll regard as good the exiles of Judah whom I sent from this place to the land of the Chaldeans. ⁶ I’ll look at them with good intentions, and I’ll bring them back to this land. I’ll build them up. I won’t tear them down; I’ll plant them and not rip them up. ⁷ I’ll give them the ability to know me, for I am the LORD. They will be my people, and I will be their God when they return to me with all their heart.
⁸ “‘Like the bad figs that are too bad to be eaten—for this is what the LORD says—so I’ll give up on Zedekiah king of Judah, along with his officials, the remnant of Jerusalem that is left in this land, and those living in the land of Egypt.

³ Is wood ever taken from it to make anything practical? Can it even be made into a peg to hang something on? ⁴ After all, it’s useful only for kindling a fire, isn’t it? And once you’ve burnt up the ends and charred through the middle of it, is it useful for anything else? ⁵ If it was useless before it was burned, now that it’s been burned and charred through, it’s even more useless!

³ Now Joshua was wearing filthy clothes as he stood in the presence of the angel.
⁴ So the angel continued to tell those who were standing in his presence, “Remove his filthy clothes.”
And he told Joshua, “Look how I’ve removed your iniquity. Now I’m clothing you with fine garments.”

³⁴ Tasteless Salt
“Now, salt is good. But if the salt should lose its taste, how can its flavor be restored? ³⁵ It’s suitable neither for the soil nor for the manure pile. People throw it away. Let the person who has ears to hear, listen!”

¹² All have turned away. They have become completely worthless. No one shows kindness, not even one person!

¹¹ Once he was useless to you, but now he is very useful both to you and to me.

¹⁹ I’ll break your mighty pride. I’ll make the heavens to be like iron and the ground like bronze.

¹⁰ Can You Save Yourself?“When you have adorned yourself with exalted majesty, clothed yourself with splendor and dignity, ¹¹ dispensed the fury of your anger, made sure that you have humbled every proud person, ¹² stared down and subdued every proud person, trampled the wicked right where they are,

¹⁸ Pride precedes destruction; an arrogant spirit appears before a fall.

¹⁰ The Coming Day of the LORD “Go into the rocks! Hide in the dust to escape the terror of the LORD and to escape the glory of his majesty! ¹¹ The haughty looks of mankind will be brought low, the lofty pride of human beings will be humbled, and the LORD alone will be exalted at that time. ¹² “For the LORD of the Heavenly Armies has reserved a time to oppose all who are proud and haughty, and the self-exalting— they will be humbled. ¹³ He will take his stand against all the cedars of Lebanon, against the proud and self-exalting; and against all the oaks of Bashan; ¹⁴ against all the high mountains, and against all the lofty hills; ¹⁵ against every high tower, and against every fortified wall; ¹⁶ against all the ships from Tarshish, and against all their impressive watercraft. ¹⁷ “Humanity’s haughtiness will be humbled, male arrogance will be brought low, and the LORD alone will be exalted in that day.

⁶ “We’ve heard about Moab’s pride— so very proud he became!— his arrogance, his pride, and his insolence; therefore he is alone.

⁹ The LORD of the Heavenly Armies has planned it— to neutralize all the hubris of grandeur, to discredit all the renowned men of earth.

¹⁵ Listen and pay attention! Don’t be proud, for the LORD has spoken. ¹⁶ Give glory to the LORD your God before he brings darkness, before your feet stumble on the mountains at twilight. You hope for light, but he turns it into deep darkness. He changes it into heavy gloom. ¹⁷ If you don’t listen, I’ll cry secretly because of your pride. My eyes will cry bitterly, flowing tears, because the LORD’s flock has been taken captive.

⁴ But the vessel he was working on with the clay was ruined in the potter’s hand. So he remade it into another vessel that seemed appropriate to him.
⁵ Then this message from the LORD came to me: ⁶ “Israel, can’t I deal with you like this potter?” declares the LORD. “Look, Israel, like clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand.

²⁹ We have heard about Moab’s pride— he’s very proud— his haughtiness, his arrogance, his insolence, and his conceit.

⁵ Our pursuers breathe down our necks; we are weary, but there is no rest for us. ⁶ We made a deal with the Egyptians and the Assyrians for the price of food. ⁷ Our ancestors sinned and no longer exist yet we continue to bear the consequences of their sin. ⁸ Slaves rule over us, and no one delivers us from their control.

⁵⁰ In their arrogance, they committed detestable practices in my presence, so when I saw it, I removed them.

⁵⁶ “When you were being so arrogant, you never once mentioned your sister Sodom

² For the LORD will restore the glory of Jacob, just as he will restore the glory of Israel, although plunderers have devastated them, vandalizing their vine branches.

¹¹ When this happens, you will not be ashamed of your actions by which you sinned against me, because I will remove from among you those who revel in pride. Arrogance will have no place in my holy mountain.

¹⁴ I tell you, this man, rather than the other one, went down to his home justified, because everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the person who humbles himself will be exalted.”

⁶ But he gives all the more grace. And so he says, “God opposes the arrogant but gives grace to the humble.”

⁵ Be Humble and AlertIn a similar way, you young people must submit to the elders. All of you must clothe yourselves with humility for the sake of each other, because: “God opposes the arrogant, but gives grace to the humble.”

¹¹ “How long will this people keep on spurning me and refusing to trust me, despite all the miracles that I’ve done among them?” the LORD asked Moses.

¹⁵ The LORD God of their ancestors pleaded with them time and again through his messengers, because he had compassion on his people and on the place of his residence, ¹⁶ but they mocked God’s messengers, despised his words, and scoffed at his prophets, until there was no remedy for the wrath of the LORD that arose to punish his people.

⁸ They will not be like the rebellious generation of their ancestors, a rebellious generation, whose heart was not steadfast, and whose spirits were unfaithful to God.

⁹ So enjoy yourself in your youth, young man, and be encouraged during your younger days. Live as you like, consistent with your world view, but keep in mind that God will bring you to account for everything.

²⁴ “And it will come about that instead of fragrance there will be a stench; instead of a belt, a rope; instead of well-set hair, baldness; instead of a fine robe, sackcloth; and instead of beauty, shame.

¹⁷ At that time people will call Jerusalem, “The Throne of the LORD,” and all the nations will be gathered to it, to the name of the LORD, to Jerusalem. They’ll no longer stubbornly follow their own evil desires.

²³ But these people have stubborn and rebellious hearts. They have turned aside and have gone away.

²⁴ But they didn’t listen, nor did they pay attention. They pursued their own plans, stubbornly following their own evil desires. They went backward and not forward. ²⁵ From the day your ancestors left the land of Egypt to this present time, I’ve sent all my servants, the prophets, to you, again and again. ²⁶ But they didn’t listen to me, and they didn’t pay attention. They stiffened their necks, and they did more evil than their ancestors. ²⁷ “You will tell them all these things, but they won’t listen to you. You will call out to them, but they won’t answer you. ²⁸ You will say to them, ‘This is the nation that wouldn’t listen to the voice of the LORD its God and wouldn’t accept correction. Truth has perished; it has been eliminated from their discussions.’

⁵ Why has this people turned away? Why does Jerusalem continue in apostasy? They hold on to deceit and refuse to repent.

¹⁴ Instead, they followed their rebellious hearts and the Baals, as their ancestors taught them.”

⁷ For I’ve diligently warned your ancestors from the day I brought them out of the land of Egypt until now, regularly warning them, saying, “Obey me!” ⁸ But they would not listen or turn their ear, and each of them stubbornly followed his own evil desires. So I brought on them all the consequences of this covenant that I commanded them to fulfill, but they did not.’”

¹⁸ Jeremiah’s Life is ThreatenedThe LORD made it known to me, and so I understood. Then you showed me their malicious deeds.

⁷ I went to the Euphrates and dug it up. I got the belt from the place where I had hidden it. The belt was ruined! It was not good for anything.

¹ The Destiny of the JudgedThen the LORD told me, “Even if Moses and Samuel were standing before me, I wouldn’t be favorably disposed toward this people. Send them out of my presence! Let them go!
² “When they say to you, ‘Where can we go?’, say to them, ‘This is what the LORD says: “Those destined for death, to death will go; those destined for the sword, to the sword will go; and those destined for captivity, to captivity will go.
³ “I’ll appoint four kinds of judgment for them,” declares the LORD: “the sword to kill, the dogs to drag off, the birds of the sky to devour, and the animals of the land to destroy. ⁴ I’ll make them a horrifying sight to all the kingdoms of the earth because of what Hezekiah’s son Manasseh, king of Judah, did in Jerusalem.

⁴ “They’ll die of deadly diseases. People won’t mourn for them, nor will they be buried. They’ll be dung on the surface of the ground, and they’ll come to an end with the sword and with famine. Their dead bodies will be food for the birds of the sky and the animals of the land.”

¹² You have done even more evil than your ancestors, and each one of you is stubbornly following his own evil desires, refusing to listen to me.

³ “From the thirteenth year of the reign of Ammon’s son Josiah, the king of Judah, until the present time, for 23 years this message from the LORD has come to me, and I’ve spoken to you again and again, but you haven’t listened. ⁴ Again and again, the LORD sent all his servants, the prophets, to you, but you wouldn’t listen or even turn your ears in my direction to hear. ⁵ They said, ‘Turn, each one of you, from your evil habits and evil deeds, and live in the land that the LORD gave to you and your ancestors forever and ever. ⁶ Don’t follow other gods to serve and worship them. Don’t provoke me with the idols you make with your hands, and I won’t bring disaster on you.’ ⁷ But you didn’t listen to me,” declares the LORD, “so as to provoke me with the idols you make with your hands to your own harm.

¹⁴ “At the end of seven years, each of you is to set free your fellow Hebrew who has sold himself to you and has served you for six years. You are to send him out from you with no further obligation.” But your ancestors didn’t obey me or pay attention. ¹⁵ You recently repented and did what was right in my eyes by proclaiming release for one another, and you made a covenant before me in the house that is called by my name. ¹⁶ But then you turned around and profaned my name when each of you took back his male and female slaves whom you had set free according to their desire, and you forced them to become male and female slaves.”’
¹⁷ “Therefore, this is what the LORD says: ‘You haven’t obeyed me by each of you proclaiming a release for your brothers and neighbors. Now I’m going to proclaim a release for you,’ declares the LORD, ‘a release to the sword, to plague, and to famine, and I’ll make you a horrifying sight to all the kingdoms of the earth.

⁵¹ “You stubborn people with uncircumcised hearts and ears! You are always opposing the Holy Spirit, just as your ancestors used to do.

¹⁷ The Old Life and the NewTherefore, I tell you and insist on in the Lord not to live any longer like the gentiles live, thinking worthless thoughts. ¹⁸ They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of their ignorance and hardness of heart. ¹⁹ Since they have lost all sense of shame, they have abandoned themselves to sensuality and practice every kind of sexual perversion without restraint.

²⁵ See to it that you do not ignore the one who is speaking. For if the hearers did not escape when they ignored the one who warned them on earth, how much less will we escape if we turn away from the one who is from heaven!

⁵ And now if you carefully obey me and keep my covenant, you are to be my special possession out of all the peoples, because the whole earth belongs to me, ⁶ but you are to be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation to me.’ These are the words you are to declare to the Israelis.”

⁷ For what great nation has a god so near like the LORD our God whenever we call on him?

¹⁸ The LORD affirmed this day that you are his prized possession. Therefore observe his commands,

¹⁰ The LORD’s Work on Behalf of IsraelThe LORD found him in a desert land, in a barren, eerie wilderness. He surrounded, cared for, and guarded him as the pupil of his eye. ¹¹ Like an eagle stirs its nest, hovering near its young, spreading out his wings to take him and carry him on his pinions, ¹² the LORD alone guided him. There was no foreign god with him. ¹³ He mounted him on a high place above the earth, feeding him from the produce of the field. He nourished him with honey from the rock and with oil from the flint rock, ¹⁴ with curds from cattle and with milk from sheep, with the fat of lambs, with rams from Bashan, with the fat of goats, with the finest of wheat— and from the juice of grapes you drank wine.
¹⁵ Israel’s RebellionJacob dined until satisfied; Jeshurun grew fat and kicked. He grew fat, coarse, and gross, so that he abandoned the God who made him and spurned the Rock that was his salvation.

¹¹ Yet my people didn’t obey my voice; Israel didn’t submit to me.

⁴ It is Jacob whom the LORD chose for himself— Israel as his personal possession.

²⁰ He has not dealt with any other nation like this; they never knew his decrees. Hallelujah!

²¹ the people whom I formed for myself and so that they may speak my praise.”

¹² People will call them, ‘The Holy People,’ ‘The Redeemed of the LORD’; and they will call you, ‘Sought After,’ ‘The City Not Deserted.’”

¹⁷ I appointed watchmen over you. Listen for the sound of the trumpet. But they said, ‘We won’t listen!’

²⁶ But they didn’t listen to me, and they didn’t pay attention. They stiffened their necks, and they did more evil than their ancestors.

²⁰ You are the one who performed signs and wonders in the land of Egypt and continue to do so until this day, both in Israel and among the rest of humanity. You made a reputation for yourself that continues to this day.

⁹ Jerusalem will be for me a name of joy, praise, and glory to all the nations of the earth that hear about all the good that I’m doing for them. They’ll fear and tremble because of all the good and because of all the peace that I’m bringing to Jerusalem.’

³⁷ Moreover, the Father who sent me has himself testified on my behalf. You have never heard his voice or seen what he looks like, ³⁸ nor do you have his word at work in you, because you do not believe in the one whom he sent. ³⁹ You examine the Scriptures carefully because you suppose that in them you have eternal life. Yet they testify about me. ⁴⁰ But you are not willing to come to me to have life.

⁹ But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people to be his very own and to proclaim the wonderful deeds of the one who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

¹⁹ Then the people told me, “Are you going to explain what these things that you’re doing should mean to us?”

³ You made your people go through hard times; you had us drink wine that makes us stagger.

⁸ For there is a cup in the hand of the LORD, foaming with well-mixed wine that he will pour out, leaving only the dregs, from which all the wicked of the earth will drink.

⁹ Blind to God’s Words“Act stupid! Be astonished! Act blind, and be blind! Be drunk, but not from wine; stagger around, but not from strong drink.

²⁶ “I’ll make those who mistreat you eat their own flesh, and they will get drunk on their own blood, as with new wine. “Then all mankind will know that I am the LORD your Savior and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.”

¹⁷ “Awake, Awake! Stand up, Jerusalem, you who have drunk from the LORD’s hand from the cup that is his anger. You have drunk to the dregs the cup that makes you stagger, and have drained it.

²¹ Now listen to this, you afflicted one, made drunk, but not with wine:

⁶ I trampled people in my anger; in my wrath I made them drunk and I poured out their lifeblood on the ground.”

¹⁵ Judgment on the NationsFor this is what the LORD God of Israel says to me, “Take this cup of the wine of burning anger from my hand and make all the nations to whom I send you drink it. ¹⁶ They’ll drink, stagger, and act like madmen because of the sword I’m sending among them.” ¹⁷ So I took the cup from the LORD’s hand, and I made all the nations to whom the LORD sent me drink it: ¹⁸ Jerusalem, the cities of Judah, its kings and officials to make them into a ruin, an object of horror and scorn, and a curse, as it is this day;

²⁷ “You are to say to them, ‘This is what the LORD of the Heavenly Armies, the God of Israel, says: “Drink, get drunk, and vomit! Fall down and don’t get up because of the sword I’m sending among you.”’

⁷ Babylon was a golden cup in the LORD’s hand, making the whole earth drunk. The nations drank her wine, therefore the nations have gone mad.

⁵⁷ I’ll make their leaders, their wise men, their governors, their deputies, and their warriors drunk so that they sleep forever and don’t wake up,” declares the King whose name is the LORD of the Heavenly Armies.

¹⁶ You are filled with dishonor instead of glory. So go ahead, drink and be naked! The LORD will turn against you, and utter disgrace will debase your reputation.

²⁰ “The LORD won’t forgive such a person. Instead, the zealous anger of the LORD will blaze against him. All the curses that were written in this book will fall on him. Then the LORD will wipe out his memory from under heaven.

²⁰ When the three companies sounded their trumpets and broke the jars, they held the torches in their left hands and sounded their trumpets with their right hands. Then they cried out, “A sword for the LORD and for Gideon!” ²¹ They stood up, each soldier in his assigned place surrounding the encampment, and the entire army ran away, sounding the alarm to retreat.
²² As the 300 trumpets were being sounded, the LORD turned the swords of the Midianite soldiers against one another throughout the entire army, and the army ran away as far as Beth-shittah in the direction of Zererah. They got as far as the outskirts of Abel-meholah, near Tabbath.

¹⁶ Saul’s sentries in Gibeah of Benjamin watched as the camp was in disarray, going this way and that.

²³ The Ammonites and Moabites attacked the inhabitants of Mount Seir, destroying them, and after they had finished with the inhabitants of Mount Seir, they worked on destroying one another!

⁹ You will break them with an iron rod, you will shatter them like pottery.”

²⁰ They cut meat on the right, but they’re still hungry, and they devour also on the left, but they’re not satisfied; each devours the flesh of his own children. ²¹ Manasseh devours Ephraim, and Ephraim devours Manasseh; together they are against Judah. “Yet for all this, his anger has not turned away, and his hand is still stretched out, ready to strike.”

¹¹ When its branches are dry, they are broken off, and women come and kindle fires with them, since this is a people who show no consideration. That is why the One who made them shows them no compassion; the One who created them shows them no mercy.

²¹ Therefore, this is what the LORD says: “I’m about to put stumbling blocks in front of this people, and fathers and sons will stumble over them together. The neighbor and his friends will perish.”

⁵ For this is what the LORD says: “Don’t go to a house where there is mourning, don’t go to lament, nor to express sorrow to them. For I’ve taken my peace away from this people,” declares the LORD, “as well as gracious love and compassion.

⁹ I’ll cause them to eat the flesh of their sons and daughters, and people will eat the flesh of their neighbors in the siege and in the distress to which their enemies and those seeking their lives will subject them.”’”
¹⁰ “Then you are to break the jug in front of the men who have come with you, ¹¹ and say to them, ‘This is what the LORD of the Heavenly Armies says: “In this same way I’ll break this people and this city, just as someone breaks a potter’s vessel which he then cannot put back together again. They’ll bury corpses in Topheth until there is no more room to bury anyone.

⁷ Afterwards,” declares the LORD, “I’ll give King Zedekiah of Judah, his officials, and the people—those who are left in this city from the plague, the sword, and the famine—into the control of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, right into the hand of their enemies and the hand of those who want to kill them. He’ll execute them with swords and won’t pity them. He won’t spare them, nor will he have compassion on them.”’

³ At the sound of the galloping hooves of his horses, at the rumbling of his chariots, the clatter of his wheels, fathers won’t turn back for their children because their hands are weak,

¹² “Therefore, look, days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when I’ll send those who tip over vessels to him, and they’ll tip him over. They’ll empty his vessels and shatter his jars.

¹⁰ Fathers will eat their children in your midst. After this, your sons will eat their fathers as I carry out my sentence against you and scatter your survivors to the winds!’
¹¹ “Therefore, as sure as I live,” declares the Lord GOD, “because you’ve defiled my sanctuary with every loathsome thing and every abomination, I’ll restrain myself, and I’ll show neither pity nor compassion.

⁴ I won’t be showing pity on you and I won’t be showing compassion. I’m going to turn your own lifestyles against you while your detestable practices remain among you. Then you’ll learn that I am the LORD.’”

⁹ I won’t be showing pity or compassion. I’ll repay you according to your behavior while your detestable practices remain among you. And you’ll know that I, the LORD, have been attacking you.’”

¹⁸ I’m going to deal with them in rage and anger. I’ll show neither pity nor compassion. They’ll cry loudly directly in my ears, but I won’t listen to them.”

⁵ As I continued to listen, he also told the others, “Follow him through the city and start killing. Don’t spare anyone you see, and don’t show pity of any kind.

¹⁰ So as for me, I’m not going to show pity, and I won’t look in their direction with mercy. I’m repaying them for what they have done.”

¹⁴ “‘I, the LORD have spoken. It will happen, because I’m going to do it. I won’t hold back, have compassion, or change my mind. They’ll judge you according to your ways and deeds,’ declares the Lord GOD.”

²¹ “Brother will hand brother over for execution, and a father his child. Children will rebel against parents and have them put to death.

¹² Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child. Children will rebel against their parents and have them put to death.

¹⁴ God’s Precious Cornerstone“Therefore hear the message from the LORD, you scoffers who rule this people that are in Jerusalem. ¹⁵ Because you said: ‘We have entered into a covenant with death, and we have an agreement with Sheol, so when the overwhelming scourge makes its choice, it cannot reach us, since we have made lies our refuge and have concealed ourselves inside falsehood’ ¹⁶ therefore this is what the LORD God says: “Look! I am laying a foundation stone in Zion, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone for a sure foundation: Whoever believes firmly will not act hastily. ¹⁷ And I will make justice the measuring line, and righteousness the plumb line; hail will sweep away your refuge of lies, and floods will overflow your hiding place. ¹⁸ “Then your covenant with death will be annulled, and your agreement with Sheol will not stand; when the overwhelming scourge sweeps by, you will be trampled by it. ¹⁹ As often as it sweeps through, it will carry you away, for it will sweep by morning after morning in the day; but understanding this message will bring sheer terror at night, ²⁰ because the bed is too short to stretch out on, and its blankets too narrow to wrap around oneself!
²¹ God is on Mount PerazimFor the LORD will stand upon Mount Perazim, he will rouse himself in the Valley of Gibeon; to carry out his work— his strange deed, and to perform his task— his alien task! ²² But as for you, don’t start mocking, or your chains will become tighter; for I have heard from the LORD of the Heavenly Armies about destruction, and it is decreed against the whole land.

²³ “Who among you will listen, and pay attention, and listen for the time to come?”

¹⁵ But know for certain that if you kill me, you will bring innocent blood on yourselves and on this city and its residents because the LORD really did send me to you to say all these things for you to hear.”

² “Hear this, you elders! Listen, all of you residents of the land! Has there ever been anything like this during your lifetime, or even when your ancestors were alive?

¹⁵ But the LORD took me from tending the flock and the LORD kept saying to me, ‘Go, prophesy to my people Israel.’

¹⁹ But Peter and John answered them, “You must decide whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than God, ²⁰ for we cannot stop talking about what we’ve seen and heard.”

¹⁰ Humble yourselves in the Lord’s presence, and he will exalt you.

²⁹ ‘Let everyone listen to what the Spirit says to the churches.’”

²¹ The Plague of DarknessThen the LORD told Moses, “Stretch your hand toward the sky and there will be darkness over the land of Egypt, a darkness that one can feel.”

¹⁹ Joshua then spoke to Achan, “My son, give glory and praise to the LORD God of Israel. Tell me right now what you did. Don’t hide anything.”

⁵ Make images of your tumors and images of the mice that are destroying your land, and you are to give glory to the God of Israel. Perhaps he will remove his pressure from you, your gods, and your land.

¹⁹ Nevertheless, you crushed us in the lair of jackals, and covered us in deep darkness.

⁷ Ascribe to the LORD, you families of peoples, ascribe to the LORD glory and strength! ⁸ Ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name, bring an offering and enter his courts!

¹⁹ But the way of the wicked is like deep darkness, and they do not know what they are stumbling over.

⁸ Even if a person lives many years, let him enjoy them all, recalling that there will be many days of darkness to come—all of which are pointless.

¹ Remember Your Creator So remember your Creator during your youth! Otherwise, troublesome days will come and years will creep up on you when you’ll say, “I find no pleasure in them,” ² Otherwise, when the sun, daylight, moon, or stars turn dark, or when clouds fail to return after the rain—

³⁰ They will roar over it at that time, like the sea waves roar. If one surveys the land, watch out! There’s darkness and distress; even the daylight is darkened by its clouds.

²² or they’ll look toward the earth, but they’ll see only distress and darkness, the gloom that comes from anguish, and then they’ll be thrown into total darkness.”

⁹ A Commitment to Wait on God“So justice is far from us, and righteousness does not reach us. We wait for light, but look—there is darkness; we wait for brightness, but we walk in deep darkness.

² For look! Darkness will cover the earth and thick darkness is over the people, but the LORD will arise upon you, and his glory will appear over you.

²³ A Vision of ChaosI looked at the earth, and it was formless and void, at the heavens, and there was no light there.

¹⁵ We waited for peace, but no good has come, for a time of healing, but instead there was terror.

¹⁹ The People Plead to the LORDHave you completely rejected Judah? Do you despise Zion? Why have you struck us, so that there is no healing for us? We hoped for peace, but no good came, for a time of healing, but there was only terror.

¹² Therefore their way will be slippery. They’ll be driven out into the darkness, where they’ll fall. For I’ll bring disaster on them, the year of their judgment,” declares the LORD.

¹⁷ Our eyes failed, searching in vain for hope; we kept watching and looking for a nation that would not help.

⁹ It will come about at that time,” declares the Lord GOD, “I will cause the sun to set at noon and the earth to darken in the daylight. ¹⁰ I will turn your festivals into mourning, and all of your songs to dirges. I will cause all of you to put on sackcloth and to shave all of your heads. I will make that time like mourning for an only son, and its conclusion will be like the end of a bitter day.”

³⁵ Jesus replied to the crowd, “The light is among you only for a short time. Walk while you have the light, so that the darkness may not overtake you. The person who walks in the darkness is in the darkness and does not know where he is going.

⁸ a stone they stumble over and a rock they trip on.”They keep on stumbling because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do.

¹⁰ The person who loves his brother abides in the light, and there is no reason for him to stumble. ¹¹ But the person who hates his brother is in the darkness and lives in the darkness. He does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.

¹¹ “I regret that I made Saul king, because he has turned away from following me and has not carried out my commands.” Samuel was angry, and he cried out to the LORD all night.

³⁵ Samuel did not see Saul again until the day of his death, but Samuel grieved over Saul, and the LORD regretted that he had made Saul king over Israel.

¹ For the Director of Music: According to “The Lilies”. A testimony of Asaph. A psalm.
A Prayer for Jerusalem Shepherd of Israel, listen! The one who leads Joseph like a flock, the one enthroned on the cherubim, display your glory.

¹³⁶ My eyes shed rivers of tears, when others do not obey your instruction.

¹¹ Then they remembered the days of old, of Moses his servant. Where is the one who brought up out of the sea the shepherds of his flock? Where is the one who put his Holy Spirit among them,

¹ The LORD’s Sorrow for His People “Oh, that my head were a spring of water, and my eyes a fountain of tears, for then I would cry day and night for those of my people who have been killed.

¹⁹ The towns in the Negev will be closed up, and there will be no one to open them. All Judah will be taken into exile and be completely exiled. ²⁰ “Look up and see those who are coming from the north. Where is the flock that was given to you— your beautiful sheep?

¹⁷ “And deliver this message to them: ‘Let tears run down my face, night and day, and don’t let them stop, because my virgin daughter—my people— will be broken with a powerful blow, with a severe wound.

¹⁶ I haven’t run away from being your shepherd, and I haven’t longed for the day of sickness. You know what comes out from my lips, it’s open before you.

⁵ But if you don’t listen to these words, I swear,” declares the LORD, “that this house will become a ruin.”’”

¹ A Righteous King for God’s People“How terrible for the shepherds who are destroying and scattering the sheep of my pasture!” declares the LORD.

² Bitterly she cries in the night, as tears stream down her cheeks. No one consoles her of all her friends. All her neighbors have betrayed her; they have become her enemies.

¹⁶ Because of all this, I weep; my eyes stream with tears because far from me is the comforter of my soul. My children are sorrowful, because the enemy has won.

¹⁸ Cry out from your heart to the Lord, wall of fair Zion! Let your tears run down like a river day and night. Allow yourself no rest, and don’t stop crying.

³¹ ‘And as for you, my sheep, the flock that I’m pasturing, you are mankind, and I am your God,’ declares the Lord GOD.”

³⁸ The desolate cities will be filled with flocks of human beings, just like Jerusalem used to be filled with flocks of sheep during the times of the appointed festivals. Then they will know that I am the LORD.’”

² “If you don’t listen, and if you don’t choose to give honor to my name,” says the LORD of the Heavenly Armies, “then I’ll curse both you and your blessings. I’ve even cursed them already, because none of you are taking it to heart.

⁴¹ When he came closer and saw the city, he began to grieve over it: ⁴² “If you had only known today what could have brought you peace! But now it is hidden from your sight,

² I have deep sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart, ³ for I could wish that I myself were condemned and cut off from the Messiah for the sake of my brothers, my own people, ⁴ who are Israelis. To them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the Law, the worship, and the promises.

³ Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and told him, “This is what the LORD God of the Hebrews says: ‘How long will you refuse to humble yourself before me? Let my people go, so they may serve me.

¹² King Jehoiachin of Judah surrendered to the king of Babylon (as did his mother, his servants, his princes, and his officers) during the eighth year of his reign.

¹⁵ He sent Jehoiachin into exile to Babylon, along with the king’s mother, the king’s wives, his officials, and the leading men of the land. He took them into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon.

¹² But when he was in trouble, he sought the face of the LORD his God, humbled himself magnificently before the God of his ancestors,

¹⁹ His prayer, how God was moved by him, all of his sin and unfaithfulness, and a record of the sites where he constructed high places, erected Asherim and carved images before he humbled himself are written in the Acts of the Seers.

²³ except that he never humbled himself to the LORD like his father Manasseh had done. In fact, Amon multiplied his own guilt

²⁶ and her gates lament and mourn. Ravaged, she will sit on the ground.”

¹ The Fall of Babylon “Come down and sit in the dust, Virgin Daughter of Babylon. Sit on the ground without a chair, Daughter of the Chaldeans! For no longer will they call you tender and attractive.

²⁶ I’ll hurl you and the mother who gave birth to you into another land where you were not born, and there you will die.

¹⁰ The leaders of cherished Zion sit silently on the ground; they throw dust on their heads and dress in mourning clothes. The young women of Jerusalem bow their heads in sorrow.

² Tell them: ‘What a lioness your mother was among lions! She reared her cubs in the midst of fierce young males. ³ She raised one cub in particular, teaching that fierce lion to become a hunter-prowler— to eat human beings. ⁴ The nations heard about him. He had become caught in their trap. They brought him with hooks to the land of Egypt. ⁵ When she learned that her plans had been frustrated and that her hopes were dashed, she took another of her cubs and turned him into a fierce lion. ⁶ He prowled around among the lions, became a strong, young lion, and learned to become a hunter-prowler— to eat human beings. ⁷ He raped the women, devastating their towns. The land was made desolate, and all the while the land was filled with the sound of his roaring. ⁸ The surrounding nations attacked. They tossed their net over him, and he was caught in their trap. ⁹ They imprisoned him in a cage with hooks and brought him to the king of Babel. Then they placed him in their dungeon where his voice would no longer be heard on the mountains of Israel. ¹⁰ ‘Your mother was like a vine entwining a pomegranate, planted by water, full of fruit, and full of branches because it had been watered generously. ¹¹ Strong were its boughs, suitable for use in the scepter of a ruler. It reached to the clouds, noticeable because of its height and its abundant branches. ¹² Yet in anger it was uprooted and cast down to the earth. An east wind desiccated its fruit; its strong branches broke off and withered, and a fire consumed them. ¹³ Now it is planted in the desert, in a dry and thirsty land! ¹⁴ Fire had burned through its branches, consuming its shoots and fruits. No strong branches remain in it, and there is no scepter to rule!’
“This is a lamentation, and it is to be used in mourning.”

⁶ When the message reached the king of Nineveh, he got up from his throne, removed his royal garments, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat down in ashes.

⁴ Therefore, whoever humbles himself as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom from heaven,

⁶ Therefore, humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, so that at the proper time he may exalt you.

³¹ I’ll lay your cities to waste and destroy your sanctuaries so I don’t have to smell the scent of your soothing odors. ³² I’ll make the land so desolate that your enemies who live in it will be astonished.”
³³ Captivity among the Nations“I’ll scatter you among the nations and draw the sword after you so that your land becomes desolate and your towns become ruins.

¹⁵ Reversal of Blessings“But if you don’t obey the LORD your God and faithfully carry out all his commands and statutes that I’m giving you today, then all these curses will come upon you and overwhelm you.

⁵² They’ll besiege all your cities until your high and fortified walls in which you have trusted collapse throughout the land. Indeed, they will besiege all your cities, which the LORD your God gave you.”

⁶⁴ Scattering among the Nations“He’ll scatter you among the peoples from one end of the earth to the other, and there you’ll serve other gods made of wood and stones, which neither you nor your ancestors have known. ⁶⁵ Among those nations you’ll have no rest. There’ll be no resting place for the soles of your feet. Instead, the LORD will give you an anxious heart, failing eyesight, and a despairing spirit. ⁶⁶ You’ll cling to life, being fearful by both night and day, with no assurance of survival. ⁶⁷ In the morning you’ll say, ‘I wish it were evening.’ Yet in the evening you’ll say, “I wish it were morning,” on account of what you’ll dread and what you’ll see. ⁶⁸ Finally, the LORD will bring you back to Egypt by ship, a place that I said you’ll never see again. There you’ll try to sell yourselves to your enemies as male and female slaves, but no one will buy you.”

⁵ They’ll divide it seven ways. Judah will stay in its territory on the south and the house of Joseph will remain in its territory on the north.

²¹ where the king of Babylon executed them in the land of Hamath. And so Judah was transported into exile from the land.

¹⁴ When he tears down, nobody rebuilds; when he incarcerates, nobody escapes.

²⁶ They’ll come from the cities of Judah, from the places around Jerusalem, from the territory of Benjamin, from the Shephelah, from the hill country, and from the Negev, bringing burnt offerings, sacrifices, grain offerings, and incense, and bringing thanksgiving offerings to the LORD’s Temple.

⁴ For this is what the LORD says: ‘Look, I’m going to make you a terror to yourself and to all your loved ones. They’ll fall by the sword of their enemies, and your eyes will see it. I’ll give all Judah into the hand of the king of Babylon. He will take them into exile to Babylon, and he will execute them with swords.

¹³ In the towns of the hill country, in the towns of the Shephelah, in the towns of the Negev, in the territory of Benjamin, in the areas around Jerusalem, and in the towns of Judah flocks will again pass under the hands of the one who counts them,’ says the LORD.”

⁹ Nebuzaradan, the captain of the Babylonian guard, took into exile in Babylon the rest of the people who remained in the city, those who had deserted to Nebuchadnezzar, and the rest of the people who remained.

²⁷ The king of Babylon struck them down and killed them at Riblah in the land of Hamath. So Judah went into exile from the land.

³⁰ in Nebuchadnezzar’s twenty-third year, Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard took 745 people from Judah into exile. All the people taken into exile numbered 4,600.

⁴⁶ “Son of Man, turn to the south and oppose it, talking toward the south. ⁴⁷ Prophesy against the forest of the Negev, ‘Listen to this message from the LORD. This is what the Lord GOD says: “Look out! I’m about to ignite a fire and set it against you. It will devour every tree—whether green or dry—that lives in you. This powerful flame will not be extinguishable, and the entire surface from south to north will be scorched by it.

⁹ “All you wild animals, come and devour— even all of you wild animals. ¹⁰ His watchmen are blind; they are all without knowledge. They are all dumb dogs— they cannot bark. They keep on dreaming and lying around, and they’re lovers of sleep! ¹¹ Meanwhile, the dogs have a mighty appetite— they can never get enough. And as for them, they are the shepherds who lack understanding; they have all turned to their own way, each one to his gain, each and every one. ¹² “‘Come!’ they say, ‘let’s have some wine, and let’s fill ourselves with strong drink! Then, tomorrow will be like today, or even much better!’”

¹⁴ Then the LORD told me, “From the north disaster will pour out on all who live in the land,

²² The Invaders from the NorthThis is what the LORD says: “Look, people are coming from a northern country. A great nation is stirring from the ends of the earth.

²² The sound of a report, it’s coming now! There is a great commotion from a land in the north to make the towns of Judah desolate, a refuge for jackals.”

¹⁷ If you don’t listen, I’ll cry secretly because of your pride. My eyes will cry bitterly, flowing tears, because the LORD’s flock has been taken captive.

² Therefore, this is what the LORD God of Israel says about the shepherds who are shepherding my people, “You have scattered my flock and driven them away. You haven’t taken care of them, and now I’m about to take care of you because of your evil deeds,” declares the LORD.

⁷ “Therefore listen to what the LORD says, you shepherds: ⁸ ‘As certainly as I’m alive and living, my sheep have truly become victims, food for all of the wild animals because there are no shepherds. My shepherds did not go searching for my flock. Instead, the shepherds fed themselves, and my flock they would not feed!’
⁹ “Therefore, you shepherds, listen to what the LORD says: ¹⁰ ‘This is what the Lord GOD says: “Watch out, I’m coming after you shepherds! I’m going to demand my sheep back from them and fire them as shepherds. The shepherds won’t be shepherds anymore when I snatch my flock right out of their mouths so they can’t be eaten by them anymore.”’”

⁶ Watch out! For I am bringing in the Chaldeans, that cruel and impetuous people, who sweep across the earth dispossessing people from homes not their own.

¹⁶ for I am now raising up a shepherd in the land who will neither search for the lost, nor care for the young, nor fix the broken, nor sustain the healthy. Instead, he will devour the meat of the best of the sheep, tearing off their hoofs.” ¹⁷ “Woe to the worthless shepherd, who deserts the flock! May the sword strike his arm and his right eye. May his arm wither and his right eye be completely blind.”

¹² The hired worker, who isn’t the shepherd and doesn’t own the sheep, sees the wolf coming, deserts the sheep, and runs away. So the wolf snatches them and scatters them, ¹³ because he’s a hired worker, and the sheep don’t matter to him.

²⁶ I therefore declare to you today that I’m not responsible for the blood of any of you, ²⁷ because I never shrank from telling you the whole plan of God. ²⁸ Pay attention to yourselves and to the entire flock over which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers to be shepherds of God’s church, which he acquired with his own blood. ²⁹ I know that when I’m gone, savage wolves will come among you and not spare the flock.

⁷ So Ahaz sent envoys to Tiglath-pileser, king of Assyria, to tell him, “I am your servant and son. Save me from the king of Aram and the king of Israel, who are attacking me.”

³ What will you do on the day of Judgment, in the calamity that will come from far away? To whom will you run for help, and where will you leave your wealth,

⁸ They will be terrified; pain and anguish will seize them; they’ll writhe like a woman in labor. They’ll look aghast at one another; and their faces will be ablaze with fear.

³ Therefore my body is racked with pain; pangs have seized me, like the pangs of a woman in labor; I am so upset that I cannot hear; I am so frightened that I cannot see while I’m reeling around.

² Hezekiah was delighted with them, and showed them everything in his treasure-houses—the silver, the gold, the spices, the precious oils, his entire armory, and everything found in his treasuries. There was nothing in his palace or in all his kingdom that Hezekiah did not show them.
³ Isaiah Rebukes HezekiahThen the prophet Isaiah came to King Hezekiah and asked him, “What did these men have to say? And from where did they come to you?”
Hezekiah replied, “From a distant land—they came to me from Babylon.”
⁴ “What did they see in your palace?” he asked.
“They saw everything in my palace,” Hezekiah replied. “There is nothing in my treasuries that I did not show them.”

³¹ I heard a cry like that of a woman in labor, anguish like one giving birth to her firstborn, the cry of the daughter of Zion gasping for air, stretching out her hand: “Woe is me! I’m about to faint in front of killers!”

³¹ The prophets prophesy falsely, the priests rule by their own authority, and my people love it this way. But what will you do in the end?”

²⁴ We have heard the news about it, and our hands are limp. Distress has seized us like a woman in labor.

²³ You who live in Lebanon, who build your nest in the cedars, how you will groan when pains come upon you, pain like that of a woman giving birth.

⁶ Ask about this and think about it— Can a man give birth to a child? Why then do I see every strong man with his hands on his thighs like a woman giving birth, and all their faces have turned pale?

²² Look, all the women who are left in the house of the king of Judah will be brought out to the officers of the king of Babylon, and will say, ‘These friends of yours have mislead you and overcome you. Your feet have sunk down into the mire, but they have turned away.’

⁴¹ The towns will be captured and the strongholds seized. On that day the hearts of the warriors of Moab will be like the heart of a woman in labor.

⁹ Is that when you’ll say, ‘I’m God’ to the face of those who will be killing you? After all, you’re a man, and have never been a god, especially when you’re under the control of those who will defile you!

³ When people say, “There is peace and security,” destruction will strike them as suddenly as labor pains come to a pregnant woman, and they will not be able to escape.

¹⁷ The LORD will Fight for You“You may say to yourselves, ‘These nations are more numerous than we are. How can we dispossess them?’

¹⁷ You may say to yourselves, ‘I have become wealthy by my own strength and by my own ability.’

²¹ Now you may ask yourselves, ‘How will we be able to discern that the LORD has not spoken?’

¹⁷ therefore the LORD will afflict sores on the heads of Zion’s women, and the LORD will expose their private parts.

⁴ so the king of Assyria will lead away the Egyptian captives and exiles from Cush, both the young and the old, naked and barefoot—with even their buttocks uncovered—to the shame of Egypt.

² Take millstones and grind flour. Remove your veil, strip off your robes, bare your legs, and wade through the rivers. ³ Your nakedness will be exposed, and your disgrace will also be seen. I’ll take vengeance, and I will spare no mortal.

⁸ “Now hear this, you wanton creature, lounging with no cares, and saying to herself: ‘I am the one, and there will be none besides me; I won’t live as a widow, nor will I see the loss of children.’

¹⁷ You have done this to yourselves, have you not, by forsaking the LORD your God, when he is the one who led you on the way? ¹⁸ Now, what are you doing on the road to Egypt, to drink the waters of the Nile? And what are you doing on the road to Assyria, to drink the waters of the Euphrates? ¹⁹ Your wickedness will be punished, and you will be corrected due to your acts of apostasy. Know and see that it’s evil and bitter for you to forsake the LORD your God, but the fear of me is not in you,” declares the Lord GOD of the Heavenly Armies.

¹⁹ When the people ask, ‘Why has the LORD our God done all this to us?’ you are to say to them, ‘Just as you have forsaken me and served foreign gods in your land, so you will serve strangers in a land that is not yours.’”

² Oh, that I had a lodging place for travelers in the desert, so that I could leave my people and go away from them. For all of them are adulterers, a band of traitors. ³ They use their tongues like a bow. Lies rather than truth fly throughout the land. They progress from one evil to another, and they don’t know me,” declares the LORD. ⁴ “Beware of your neighbors, and don’t trust any of your relatives. For all of your relatives act deceitfully, and every friend goes around as a slanderer. ⁵ People deceive their friends, and they don’t tell the truth. They have taught their tongues to tell lies. They exhaust themselves practicing evil. ⁶ You yourself live in the midst of deception, and because they are deceived they do not know me,” declares the LORD. ⁷ Therefore, this is what the LORD of the Heavenly Armies says: “Look, I’m about to refine and test them. Because they’re my people, what else can I do? ⁸ Their tongue is a deadly arrow that speaks deceit. With his mouth a person says, ‘Peace,’ to his friend, but inwardly he sets a trap for him. ⁹ Should I not punish them for these things?” asks the LORD, “and should I not avenge myself on a nation like this?”

²⁶ I’ll also pull your skirt up over your face, so your shame will be seen,

¹⁰ “When you speak all these words to this people, they’ll say to you, ‘Why has the LORD pronounced all this disaster against us? What is our iniquity, and what is the sin that we have committed against the LORD our God?’ ¹¹ Then say to them, ‘It is because your ancestors abandoned me,’ declares the LORD. ‘They followed other gods, served them, worshipped them, abandoned me, and didn’t keep my Law.

⁸ Jerusalem sinned greatly, and she became unclean. All who honored her now despise her, because they saw her naked. She herself groans and turns her face away.

³⁷ therefore, watch out! I’m about to gather all your lovers from whom you’ve received your pleasure, everyone whom you’ve loved, and those whom you’ve hated. I’ll gather them together to oppose you from every side, and they’ll uncover your nakedness in their presence. Then they’ll see you completely naked. ³⁸ I’ll judge you with the same standards by which I issue verdicts against a woman who commits adultery and murder. I’ll avenge the blood you’ve shed with impassioned wrath.
³⁹ “I’ll also deliver you into their control, and they’ll break down your mounds, tear down your high places, strip off your clothes, remove your fine jewels, and then they’ll leave you stark naked!

²⁷ That’s how I’ll put an end to your obscene conduct and sexual immorality that you kept on practicing since the day you left the land of Egypt so that you won’t look in Egypt’s direction or even remember it anymore.’
²⁸ “This is what the Lord GOD says, ‘I’m about to turn you over to the control of those you hate, to the control of those from whom you turned away in disgust. ²⁹ They’ll deal with you with hatred. They’ll take away your productivity, leaving you naked and defenseless, so that the nakedness of your sexual immorality will be uncovered—your licentious sexual immorality.

³ Otherwise, I’ll strip her naked— as she was on the day she was born— make her like a wilderness, turn her into a parched land, and cause her to die of thirst.

¹⁰ So now I’ll reveal her lewdness to the eyes of her lovers, and no man will rescue her from my control.

⁸ Ephraim claims, ‘I have become rich, I have made a fortune! Because of all my wealth, no one will find any iniquity or sin in me.’

⁵ God’s Decree against Nineveh“Look, I am against you,” declares the LORD of the Heavenly Armies, “so I will pull up your dress over your face. I will show your nakedness to the nations, and your disgrace to the kingdoms.

¹² And it will come about that I will search Jerusalem with candles, punishing the self-satisfied and complacent, who say to themselves, ‘The LORD will do neither good nor evil.’

²¹ The scribes and the Pharisees began to argue among themselves, saying, “Who is this man who is uttering blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God alone?”
²² Because Jesus knew that they were arguing, he asked them, “Why are you arguing about this among yourselves?

²² Though you crush a fool in a mortar and pestle as someone might crush grain, his stupidity still won’t leave him.

⁵ “Why will you still be struck down? Why will you continue to rebel? Your whole head is sick, and your whole heart is faint.

²² Though you wash yourself with lye and use much soap, the stain of your guilt is still before me,” declares the Lord GOD.

³⁰ “I’ve punished your children with no results, they have accepted no discipline. Your sword has devoured your prophets like a destroying lion.”

³ The Prophet SpeaksLORD, don’t your eyes look for truth? You struck them, but they didn’t flinch. You brought them to an end, but they refused to receive discipline. They made their faces harder than stone, and they refused to repent.

²⁹ The bellows blow fiercely to consume the lead with the fire. The assayer keeps on refining, but the impurities aren’t separated out. ³⁰ They’re called reject silver, because the LORD has rejected them.

⁵ People deceive their friends, and they don’t tell the truth. They have taught their tongues to tell lies. They exhaust themselves practicing evil.

⁹ The Deceitfulness of the Human Heart“The heart is more deceitful than anything. It is incurable— who can know it?

²⁴ Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to squeeze through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to get into the kingdom of God.”
²⁵ When the disciples heard this, they were completely astonished. “Who, then, can be saved?” they asked.
²⁶ Jesus looked at them intently and said, “For humans this is impossible, but for God all things are possible.”
²⁷ “Look!” Peter replied. “We have left everything and followed you. So what will we get?”
²⁸ Jesus told them, “I tell all of you with certainty, when the Son of Man sits on his glorious throne in the renewed creation, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, governing the twelve tribes of Israel.

³³ Captivity among the Nations“I’ll scatter you among the nations and draw the sword after you so that your land becomes desolate and your towns become ruins.

²⁷ Moreover, the LORD will scatter you among the nations, and you’ll be fewer in number in the nations where the LORD your God will drive you.

⁶⁴ Scattering among the Nations“He’ll scatter you among the peoples from one end of the earth to the other, and there you’ll serve other gods made of wood and stones, which neither you nor your ancestors have known.

²⁶ “I said, ‘I will scatter them, erasing their memory from the human race,

⁴ But this is not the case with the wicked. They are like chaff that the wind blows away.

¹³ God, set them up like dried thistles, like straw before the wind. ¹⁴ Like a fire burning a forest, and a flame setting mountains ablaze. ¹⁵ Pursue them with your storm and terrify them with your whirlwind.

¹³ The nations roar like the rushing of many waters, but the LORD will rebuke them, and they will run far away, chased like chaff blown down from the mountains or like thick dust that rolls along, blown along by a wind storm.

¹⁶ You’ll winnow them, and the wind will lift them up, and a tempest will blow them away. Then you’ll rejoice in the LORD, and you’ll make your boast in the Holy One of Israel.”

¹¹ The Scorching Wind of JudgmentAt that time, it will be told this people and to Jerusalem, “A scorching wind from the barren heights in the desert is coming toward my people, and it’s not for winnowing or cleansing. ¹² A wind too strong for that is coming at my bidding. Now I’m judging them as I speak.”

² You are to burn a third of it in the middle of the city when you’ve finished your siege. Next, you are to take another third of it and beat it with your sword. Last, you are to scatter the remaining third to the wind, after which I’ll unsheathe my sword and pursue them.

¹² A third of you will die by pestilence, starving because of the famine in your midst. Another third will die violently by the violence of war around you. The final third I’ll scatter to the wind as I unsheathe my sword to pursue them.

⁸ I’ll leave a remnant among you—those who will escape the sword when I’ll have scattered you throughout the earth.

²¹ The fugitives of his troops will die by the sword, and the survivors will be scattered to the four winds. Then you’ll know that I, the LORD, have spoken.”

³ Therefore they will be like morning clouds, like early morning dew that evaporates, like chaff blown away from the threshing floor, or like smoke from a chimney.”

² Before the decree is carried out, before the day flies away like chaff, before the fierce anger of the LORD visits you, before the Day of the LORD’s wrath surprises you,

²⁴ They will fall by the edge of the sword and be carried off as captives among all the nations, and Jerusalem will be trampled on by the unbelievers until the times of the unbelievers are fulfilled.”

¹⁶ They provoked him to jealousy over foreigners and to anger over detestable things. ¹⁷ They sacrificed to demons— not to the real God— gods whom they didn’t know, new neighbors who had recently appeared, whom your ancestors never feared. ¹⁸ You neglected the Rock that fathered you; you abandoned God, who was awaiting your birth.

³⁷ “He will say, ‘Where are their gods, the rock in which they took refuge? ³⁸ Who ate the fat of their offerings and drank the wine that was their drink offering? Let them rise and help you and be your hiding place!’

²⁹ This is what the wicked person inherits from God; it is the inheritance that God appoints for him.”

¹⁷ The wicked will turn back to where the dead are— all the nations that have forgotten God.

⁶ He rains on the wicked burning coals and sulfur; a scorching wind is their destiny.

²¹ They forgot God their Savior, who performed great things in Egypt— ²² awesome deeds in the land of Ham, astonishing deeds at the Reed Sea.

⁴ A Time of Weakness for Israel“At that time, Jacob’s glory will have become weakened, and his strong flesh will turn gaunt;

¹⁵ Because you said: ‘We have entered into a covenant with death, and we have an agreement with Sheol, so when the overwhelming scourge makes its choice, it cannot reach us, since we have made lies our refuge and have concealed ourselves inside falsehood’

¹³ “Indeed, my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living water, and they have dug cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that cannot hold water.”

³² Will a young woman forget her wedding ornaments, or a bride her attire? But my people have forgotten me days without number.

⁴ Don’t trust deceptive words like these, and say, ‘The Temple of the LORD, the Temple of the LORD, the Temple of the LORD,’ ⁵ but rather, truly change your ways and your deeds. If you truly practice justice between each person and his neighbor, ⁶ and if you don’t oppress the alien, the orphan, and the widow, and don’t shed an innocent person’s blood in this place, and if you don’t follow other gods to your own harm, ⁷ then I’ll let you dwell in this land, the land that I gave to your ancestors forever and ever. ⁸ “Look, you’re trusting in deceptive words that cannot benefit.

¹⁴ Everyone is stupid and without knowledge. Every goldsmith is put to shame by his idols, for his images are false. There is no life in them.

¹¹ Her leaders judge for the money, her priests teach only when they’re paid, and her prophets prophesy for cash. Even so, don’t they all rely on the LORD as they ask, ‘The LORD is among us, is he not? Nothing bad can possibly happen to us!’

¹⁸ Judgment on the Idol Maker“Where is the benefit in owning a carved image, that motivates its maker to carve it? It is only a cast image— a teacher that lies— because the engraver entrusts himself to his carving, crafting speechless idols. ¹⁹ “Woe to the one who says to a tree, ‘Wake up!’ or ‘Arise!’ to a speechless stone. Idols like this can’t teach, can they? Look, even though it is overlaid with gold and silver, there’s no breath in it at all.”

⁵¹ Then his master will punish him severely and assign him a place with the hypocrites. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

²² When you say to yourselves, ‘Why have all these things happened to me?’ It’s because of the extent of your iniquity that your skirt has been lifted up, and your heels have suffered violence.

³⁷ therefore, watch out! I’m about to gather all your lovers from whom you’ve received your pleasure, everyone whom you’ve loved, and those whom you’ve hated. I’ll gather them together to oppose you from every side, and they’ll uncover your nakedness in their presence. Then they’ll see you completely naked.

²⁹ They’ll deal with you with hatred. They’ll take away your productivity, leaving you naked and defenseless, so that the nakedness of your sexual immorality will be uncovered—your licentious sexual immorality.

⁴ When they speak, they spew arrogance. Everyone who practices iniquity brags about it.

⁸ Pay attention, you dull ones among the crowds! You fools! Will you ever become wise?

²² “You naïve ones, how long will you love naiveté? And how long will scoffers delight in scoffing or fools hate knowledge?”

⁷ “You have made your bed on a high and lofty mountain, and you went up to offer sacrifice there.

⁷ both your iniquities and your ancestors’ iniquities together,’’ says the LORD. “Because they offered incense on the mountains and insulted me on hills, I’ll measure into their laps full payment for their earlier actions.”

²⁰ “For long ago I broke your yoke and tore off your bonds, But you said, ‘I won’t serve you!’ Instead, on every high hill and under every green tree, you bend down to commit fornication. ²¹ I planted you myself as a choice vine, from the very best seed. How did you turn against me into a degenerate and foreign vine? ²² Though you wash yourself with lye and use much soap, the stain of your guilt is still before me,” declares the Lord GOD.
²³ Israel’s Passion for Sin“How can you say, ‘I’m not defiled. I haven’t gone after the Baals.’? Look at what you’ve done in the valley. Know what you have done. You are a swift young camel galloping aimlessly; ²⁴ a wild donkey accustomed to the desert, sniffing the wind in her passion. When she’s in heat, who can turn her away? None of the males who pursue her need to tire themselves out, for in her month they’ll find her.”

¹ God Contemplates Divorcing Israel “When a man divorces his wife, she leaves him and becomes another man’s wife, will the first husband return to her again? The land would be deeply polluted, would it not? Since you have committed fornication with many lovers, would you now return to me?” declares the LORD. ² “Look up to the barren heights and see. Is there any place where you have not been ravished? You have sat beside the road, waiting for them like a nomad in the desert. And you have polluted the land with your fornication and your wickedness.

⁶ The Example of SamariaIn the time of King Josiah the LORD told me, “Have you seen what unfaithful Israel did? She went up on every high hill and under every green tree, and she committed fornication there.

¹³ The People’s Response to JudgmentLook, he comes up like clouds, and his chariots are like a whirlwind. His horses are as swift as eagles. Woe to us—we’re destroyed! ¹⁴ Jerusalem, wash your evil from your heart so that you may be delivered. How long will you harbor evil schemes within you?

⁷ Why should I forgive you? Your sons have forsaken me, and you have sworn by those who aren’t gods. When I gave them enough food to satisfy them, they committed adultery and marched to the prostitute’s house. ⁸ They were well-fed, lusty stallions, each one neighing after his neighbor’s wife.

¹⁰ being unrolled right in front of me! Written on both sides were lamentations, mourning, and cries of grief.

¹³ “You’ll learn that I am the LORD, when the fatally wounded will be among their idols, around their altars, on every hill, on top of the mountains, under every luxuriant tree, and under all the full-grown foliage—every place where they’ve offered fragrant aromas to all their idols.

¹⁵ Jerusalem’s Arrogant Unfaithfulness“But you trusted in your beauty. You did what whores do, as a result of your fame. You passed out your sexual favors to anyone who passed by, giving yourself to anyone. ¹⁶ You took some of your clothes and made gaily-colored high places and prostituted yourself all around them—something which had never happened before nor will ever happen again.
¹⁷ “You also took your fine jewelry—including my gold and my silver that I had given you. Then you made for yourself male images and had sex with them! ¹⁸ You took your embroidered gowns and made clothes to cover them. Then you offered my olive oil and incense to them.
¹⁹ “Not only that, you took the food I gave you—my fine flour, olive oil, and honey with which I fed you, and you offered them to those gods in order to appease them. That’s exactly what happened,” says the Lord GOD. ²⁰ “Then you took your sons and daughters whom you bore for me and sacrificed them for your idols to eat. As though your prostitutions were an insignificant thing, ²¹ you also slaughtered my sons and offered them to idols, incinerating them in fire. ²² Throughout all of your detestable practices and immorality, you never did remember your earlier life when you were bare, naked, and wallowing in your own blood.”

²⁸ I brought them to the land that I had promised to give them. But whenever they saw any high hill and or any leafy tree, they slaughtered their sacrifices there and presented their offerings that provoked my anger. There they presented their pleasing aromas and poured out their drink offering.

² “Son of Man, here are two sisters who are daughters from the same mother. ³ They committed sexual immorality in Egypt. They did this in their youth. There, their breasts were caressed. Their virgin breasts were fondled. ⁴ The older one was named Oholah and her sister was named Oholibah. They belonged to me and gave birth to sons and daughters. Now as to their real identities, Oholah refers to Samaria and Oholibah to Jerusalem.”
⁵ The Sins of Samaria“Oholah committed sexual immorality while she belonged to me. She lusted for Assyria’s warriors, ⁶ who were clothed in blue—including governors and commanders. All of them were desirable young men—horsemen mounted on horses. ⁷ She bestowed her sexual favors on them—all of them, the best of the Assyrians—and with whomever she lusted for.
“She defiled herself with all their idols. ⁸ She never abandoned the immorality that she practiced in Egypt during her youth, where they laid down with her and fondled her virgin breasts, lavishing her with all kinds of favors. ⁹ Therefore, I turned her over to the control of her lovers, that is, into the control of the Assyrians for whom she lusted. ¹⁰ They stripped her naked, took away her sons and daughters, and executed her with a sword. She became an object of ridicule among other nations when they punished her.”
¹¹ The Sins of Jerusalem“Her sister Oholibah saw this, but she was more corrupt in her lust and sexual immorality than her sister had been in her own sexual immorality. ¹² She lusted after the Assyrians—governors, commanders, warriors clothed in gorgeous attire, cavalry mounted on their horses—all of them desirable young men. ¹³ I saw that she was defiled, because the two of them both were on the same path.
¹⁴ “She became even more sexually immoral when she saw the images of the Chaldean men who had been carved in red on their walls. ¹⁵ Girded with waistbands around their loins, with flowing turbans on their heads, all of them looked like chariot officers, similar to the Babylonians from Chaldea, where they had been born.
¹⁶ “She lusted after them when she saw them, so she sent messengers to summon them from Chaldea. ¹⁷ The Babylonians came to her love nest and defiled her with their sexual immorality. As a result, she was defiled by them. Even so, she turned away from them in disgust. ¹⁸ She displayed her immorality publicly and stripped herself naked, so I turned away in disgust from her, just as I had turned away in disgust from her sister.
¹⁹ “Nevertheless, she became even more sexually immoral, even reminiscing about when she was young, when she kept on practicing sexual immorality in the land of Egypt. ²⁰ She lusted after her paramours, whose genitals are like those of donkeys, and whose emissions are like those of horses. ²¹ Think about the wickedness that you practiced when you were young, when the Egyptians fondled your breasts, the breasts of your youth.”

⁶ Woe to Jerusalem“This is what the Lord GOD says: ‘How terrible it is for that blood-filled city, to the pot whose rust remains in it, whose rust won’t come off. Empty it one piece at a time. Don’t let a lot fall on it.

¹³ There is wickedness in your obscene conduct. Even though I’ve cleansed you, your uncleanness cannot be washed away. You cannot be cleansed again until my rage against you has subsided.’

²⁵ I’ll sprinkle pure water on you all, and you’ll be cleansed from your impurity and from all of your idols.”

³⁷ “This is what the Lord GOD has to say: ‘I’m going to allow the house of Israel to ask anything they want from me, including this: I’m going to increase their population as a shepherd increases his flock.

² Hosea’s Wife and FamilyWhen a message from the LORD came to Hosea, the LORD told him, “Go marry a prostitute and have children with her, because the land is prostituting itself by departing from the LORD.”

² Swearing, lying, murder, theft, and adultery are rampant, and blood mingles with blood.

⁵ Your calf, Samaria, has been thrown away. My anger is burning against them. How long until they become pure again?

¹ The LORD’s Rebuke to Jerusalem Woe to this filthy, polluted, and oppressive city!

²¹ “How terrible it will be for you, Chorazin! How terrible it will be for you, Bethsaida! Because if the miracles that happened in you had taken place in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes.

⁹ Ask, Search, Knock
So I say to you: Keep asking, and it will be given you. Keep searching, and you will find. Keep knocking, and the door will be opened for you, ¹⁰ because everyone who keeps asking will receive, and the person who keeps searching will find, and the person who keeps knocking will have the door opened. ¹¹ What father among you, if his son asks for bread, would give him a stone, or if he asks for a fish, would give him a snake instead of the fish? ¹² Or if he asks for an egg, would he give him a scorpion? ¹³ So if you who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who keep asking him!”

¹ Cleanse Yourselves in HolinessSince we have these promises, dear friends, let’s cleanse ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit by becoming mature in our holy fear of God.

²¹ I am afraid that when I come my God may again humble me before you and that I may have to grieve over many who formerly lived in sin and have not repented of their impurity, sexual immorality, and promiscuity that they once practiced.

⁴ You adulterers! Don’t you know that friendship with the world means hostility with God? So whoever wants to be a friend of this world is an enemy of God.

¹³ The Vision of the Eagle FlyingThen I looked, and I heard an eagle flying overhead say in a loud voice, “How terrible, how terrible, how terrible for those living on the earth, because of the blasts of the remaining trumpets that the three angels are about to blow!”