Lamentations 3 Cross References - WEB

¹ I am the man who has seen affliction by the rod of his wrath. ² He has led me and caused me to walk in darkness, and not in light. ³ Surely he turns his hand against me again and again all day long. ⁴ He has made my flesh and my skin old. He has broken my bones. ⁵ He has built against me, and surrounded me with bitterness and hardship. ⁶ He has made me dwell in dark places, as those who have been long dead. ⁷ He has walled me about, so that I can’t go out. He has made my chain heavy. ⁸ Yes, when I cry, and call for help, he shuts out my prayer. ⁹ He has walled up my ways with cut stone. He has made my paths crooked. ¹⁰ He is to me as a bear lying in wait, as a lion in secret places. ¹¹ He has turned away my ways, and pulled me in pieces. He has made me desolate. ¹² He has bent his bow, and set me as a mark for the arrow. ¹³ He has caused the shafts of his quiver to enter into my kidneys. ¹⁴ I have become a derision to all my people, and their song all day long. ¹⁵ He has filled me with bitterness. He has stuffed me with wormwood. ¹⁶ He has also broken my teeth with gravel. He has covered me with ashes. ¹⁷ You have removed my soul far away from peace. I forgot prosperity. ¹⁸ I said, “My strength has perished, along with my expectation from Yahweh.” ¹⁹ Remember my affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the bitterness. ²⁰ My soul still remembers them, and is bowed down within me. ²¹ This I recall to my mind; therefore I have hope. ²² It is because of Yahweh’s loving kindnesses that we are not consumed, because his compassion doesn’t fail. ²³ They are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness. ²⁴ “Yahweh is my portion,” says my soul. “Therefore I will hope in him.” ²⁵ Yahweh is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him. ²⁶ It is good that a man should hope and quietly wait for the salvation of Yahweh. ²⁷ It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth. ²⁸ Let him sit alone and keep silence, because he has laid it on him. ²⁹ Let him put his mouth in the dust, if it is so that there may be hope. ³⁰ Let him give his cheek to him who strikes him. Let him be filled full of reproach. ³¹ For the Lord will not cast off forever. ³² For though he causes grief, yet he will have compassion according to the multitude of his loving kindnesses. ³³ For he does not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men. ³⁴ To crush under foot all the prisoners of the earth, ³⁵ to turn away the right of a man before the face of the Most High, ³⁶ to subvert a man in his cause, the Lord doesn’t approve. ³⁷ Who is he who says, and it comes to pass, when the Lord doesn’t command it? ³⁸ Doesn’t evil and good come out of the mouth of the Most High? ³⁹ Why does a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins? ⁴⁰ Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to Yahweh. ⁴¹ Let’s lift up our heart with our hands to God in the heavens. ⁴² “We have transgressed and have rebelled. You have not pardoned. ⁴³ “You have covered us with anger and pursued us. You have killed. You have not pitied. ⁴⁴ You have covered yourself with a cloud, so that no prayer can pass through. ⁴⁵ You have made us an off-scouring and refuse in the middle of the peoples. ⁴⁶ “All our enemies have opened their mouth wide against us. ⁴⁷ Terror and the pit have come on us, devastation and destruction.” ⁴⁸ My eye runs down with streams of water, for the destruction of the daughter of my people. ⁴⁹ My eye pours down and doesn’t cease, without any intermission, ⁵⁰ until Yahweh looks down, and sees from heaven. ⁵¹ My eye affects my soul, because of all the daughters of my city. ⁵² They have chased me relentlessly like a bird, those who are my enemies without cause. ⁵³ They have cut off my life in the dungeon, and have cast a stone on me. ⁵⁴ Waters flowed over my head. I said, “I am cut off.” ⁵⁵ I called on your name, Yahweh, out of the lowest dungeon. ⁵⁶ You heard my voice: “Don’t hide your ear from my sighing, and my cry.” ⁵⁷ You came near in the day that I called on you. You said, “Don’t be afraid.” ⁵⁸ Lord, you have pleaded the causes of my soul. You have redeemed my life. ⁵⁹ Yahweh, you have seen my wrong. Judge my cause. ⁶⁰ You have seen all their vengeance and all their plans against me. ⁶¹ You have heard their reproach, Yahweh, and all their plans against me, ⁶² the lips of those that rose up against me, and their plots against me all day long. ⁶³ You see their sitting down and their rising up. I am their song. ⁶⁴ You will pay them back, Yahweh, according to the work of their hands. ⁶⁵ You will give them hardness of heart, your curse to them. ⁶⁶ You will pursue them in anger, and destroy them from under the heavens of Yahweh.

²¹ “Have pity on me. Have pity on me, you my friends; for the hand of God has touched me.

²⁰ You, who have shown us many and bitter troubles, you will let me live. You will bring us up again from the depths of the earth.

⁷ Your wrath lies heavily on me. You have afflicted me with all your waves. Selah.

¹⁵ I am afflicted and ready to die from my youth up. While I suffer your terrors, I am distracted. ¹⁶ Your fierce wrath has gone over me. Your terrors have cut me off.

³ He was despised and rejected by men, a man of suffering and acquainted with disease. He was despised as one from whom men hide their face; and we didn’t respect him.

¹⁷ I didn’t sit in the assembly of those who make merry and rejoice. I sat alone because of your hand, for you have filled me with indignation. ¹⁸ Why is my pain perpetual, and my wound incurable, which refuses to be healed? Will you indeed be to me as a deceitful brook, like waters that fail?

¹⁴ Cursed is the day in which I was born. Don’t let the day in which my mother bore me be blessed. ¹⁵ Cursed is the man who brought news to my father, saying, “A boy is born to you,” making him very glad. ¹⁶ Let that man be as the cities which Yahweh overthrew, and didn’t repent. Let him hear a cry in the morning, and shouting at noontime; ¹⁷ because he didn’t kill me from the womb. So my mother would have been my grave, and her womb always great. ¹⁸ Why did I come out of the womb to see labor and sorrow, that my days should be consumed with shame?

⁶ Then they took Jeremiah and threw him into the dungeon of Malchijah the king’s son, that was in the court of the guard. They let down Jeremiah with cords. In the dungeon there was no water, but mire; and Jeremiah sank in the mire.

¹² “Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by? Look, and see if there is any sorrow like my sorrow, which is brought on me, with which Yahweh has afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger. ¹³ “From on high has he sent fire into my bones, and it prevails against them. He has spread a net for my feet. He has turned me back. He has made me desolate and I faint all day long. ¹⁴ “The yoke of my transgressions is bound by his hand. They are knit together. They have come up on my neck. He made my strength fail. The Lord has delivered me into their hands, against whom I am not able to stand.

²⁹ You will grope at noonday, as the blind gropes in darkness, and you shall not prosper in your ways. You will only be oppressed and robbed always, and there will be no one to save you.

¹⁸ He will be driven from light into darkness, and chased out of the world.

²⁶ When I looked for good, then evil came. When I waited for light, darkness came.

⁹ Therefore justice is far from us, and righteousness doesn’t overtake us. We look for light, but see darkness; for brightness, but we walk in obscurity.

²³ I saw the earth, and, behold, it was waste and void, and the heavens, and they had no light.

¹⁶ Give glory to Yahweh your God, before he causes darkness, and before your feet stumble on the dark mountains, and while you look for light, he turns it into the shadow of death, and makes it deep darkness.

¹ How has the Lord covered the daughter of Zion with a cloud in his anger! He has cast the beauty of Israel down from heaven to the earth, and hasn’t remembered his footstool in the day of his anger.

⁵³ They have cut off my life in the dungeon, and have cast a stone on me. ⁵⁴ Waters flowed over my head. I said, “I am cut off.” ⁵⁵ I called on your name, Yahweh, out of the lowest dungeon.

¹⁸ “Woe to you who desire the day of Yahweh! Why do you long for the day of Yahweh? It is darkness, and not light. ¹⁹ As if a man fled from a lion, and a bear met him; Or he went into the house and leaned his hand on the wall, and a snake bit him. ²⁰ Won’t the day of Yahweh be darkness, and not light? Even very dark, and no brightness in it?

⁶ Angels who didn’t keep their first domain, but deserted their own dwelling place, he has kept in everlasting bonds under darkness for the judgment of the great day.

¹³ wild waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandering stars, for whom the blackness of darkness has been reserved forever.

²⁰ Yahweh will not pardon him, but then Yahweh’s anger and his jealousy will smoke against that man, and all the curse that is written in this book will fall on him, and Yahweh will blot out his name from under the sky.

²¹ if I have lifted up my hand against the fatherless, because I saw my help in the gate,

²⁵ I will turn my hand on you, thoroughly purge away your dross, and will take away all your tin.

²⁵ Therefore Yahweh’s anger burns against his people, and he has stretched out his hand against them and has struck them. The mountains tremble, and their dead bodies are as refuse in the middle of the streets. For all this, his anger is not turned away, but his hand is still stretched out.

¹⁰ But they rebelled and grieved his Holy Spirit. Therefore he turned and became their enemy, and he himself fought against them.

⁴ He has bent his bow like an enemy. He has stood with his right hand as an adversary. Has killed all that were pleasant to the eye. In the tent of the daughter of Zion, he has poured out his wrath like fire. ⁵ The Lord has become as an enemy. He has swallowed up Israel. He has swallowed up all her palaces. He has destroyed his strongholds. He has multiplied mourning and lamentation in the daughter of Judah. ⁶ He has violently taken away his tabernacle, as if it were a garden. He has destroyed his place of assembly. Yahweh has caused solemn assembly and Sabbath to be forgotten in Zion. In the indignation of his anger, he has despised the king and the priest. ⁷ The Lord has cast off his altar. He has abhorred his sanctuary. He has given the walls of her palaces into the hand of the enemy. They have made a noise in Yahweh’s house, as in the day of a solemn assembly.

⁸ You have shriveled me up. This is a witness against me. My leanness rises up against me. It testifies to my face. ⁹ He has torn me in his wrath and persecuted me. He has gnashed on me with his teeth. My adversary sharpens his eyes on me.

¹⁴ I am poured out like water. All my bones are out of joint. My heart is like wax. It is melted within me.

⁹ Have mercy on me, Yahweh, for I am in distress. My eye, my soul, and my body waste away with grief. ¹⁰ For my life is spent with sorrow, my years with sighing. My strength fails because of my iniquity. My bones are wasted away.

³ When I kept silence, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long.

² For your arrows have pierced me, your hand presses hard on me. ³ There is no soundness in my flesh because of your indignation, neither is there any health in my bones because of my sin. ⁴ For my iniquities have gone over my head. As a heavy burden, they are too heavy for me. ⁵ My wounds are loathsome and corrupt because of my foolishness. ⁶ I am in pain and bowed down greatly. I go mourning all day long. ⁷ For my waist is filled with burning. There is no soundness in my flesh. ⁸ I am faint and severely bruised. I have groaned by reason of the anguish of my heart.

⁸ Let me hear joy and gladness, that the bones which you have broken may rejoice.

³ For my days consume away like smoke. My bones are burned as a torch. ⁴ My heart is blighted like grass, and withered, for I forget to eat my bread. ⁵ By reason of the voice of my groaning, my bones stick to my skin.

¹³ I waited patiently until morning. He breaks all my bones like a lion. From day even to night you will make an end of me.

¹⁷ “Israel is a hunted sheep. The lions have driven him away. First, the king of Assyria devoured him, and now at last Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon has broken his bones.”

⁸ He has walled up my way so that I can’t pass, and has set darkness in my paths.

²¹ They also gave me poison for my food. In my thirst, they gave me vinegar to drink.

¹⁴ “Why do we sit still? Assemble yourselves! Let’s enter into the fortified cities, and let’s be silent there; for Yahweh our God has put us to silence, and given us poisoned water to drink, because we have sinned against Yahweh.

¹⁵ Therefore Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel, says, “Behold, I will feed them, even this people, with wormwood and give them poisoned water to drink.

¹⁵ Therefore Yahweh of Armies says concerning the prophets: “Behold, I will feed them with wormwood, and make them drink poisoned water; for from the prophets of Jerusalem ungodliness has gone out into all the land.”

⁷ He has walled me about, so that I can’t go out. He has made my chain heavy. ⁸ Yes, when I cry, and call for help, he shuts out my prayer. ⁹ He has walled up my ways with cut stone. He has made my paths crooked.

¹⁹ Remember my affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the bitterness.

⁵ set apart among the dead, like the slain who lie in the grave, whom you remember no more. They are cut off from your hand. ⁶ You have laid me in the lowest pit, in the darkest depths.

³ For the enemy pursues my soul. He has struck my life down to the ground. He has made me live in dark places, as those who have been long dead.

⁷ Hurry to answer me, Yahweh. My spirit fails. Don’t hide your face from me, so that I don’t become like those who go down into the pit.

²³ Why is light given to a man whose way is hidden, whom God has hedged in?

⁸ You have taken my friends from me. You have made me an abomination to them. I am confined, and I can’t escape.

⁴ Now, behold, I release you today from the chains which are on your hand. If it seems good to you to come with me into Babylon, come, and I will take care of you; but if it seems bad to you to come with me into Babylon, don’t. Behold, all the land is before you. Where it seems good and right to you to go, there go.”

¹⁴ “The yoke of my transgressions is bound by his hand. They are knit together. They have come up on my neck. He made my strength fail. The Lord has delivered me into their hands, against whom I am not able to stand.

⁹ He has walled up my ways with cut stone. He has made my paths crooked.

⁵ Our pursuers are on our necks. We are weary, and have no rest.

¹² He has confirmed his words, which he spoke against us, and against our judges who judged us, by bringing on us a great evil; for under the whole sky, such has not been done as has been done to Jerusalem.

⁶ Therefore behold, I will hedge up your way with thorns, and I will build a wall against her, that she can’t find her way.

⁷ “Behold, I cry out of wrong, but I am not heard. I cry for help, but there is no justice.

²⁰ I cry to you, and you do not answer me. I stand up, and you gaze at me.

² My God, I cry in the daytime, but you don’t answer; in the night season, and am not silent.

⁴ Yahweh God of Armies, how long will you be angry against the prayer of your people?

⁴⁴ You have covered yourself with a cloud, so that no prayer can pass through.

² Yahweh, how long will I cry, and you will not hear? I cry out to you “Violence!” and will you not save?

⁴⁶ About the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lima sabachthani?” That is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

²⁸ His breath is as an overflowing stream that reaches even to the neck, to sift the nations with the sieve of destruction. A bridle that leads to ruin will be in the jaws of the peoples.

¹⁷ O Yahweh, why do you make us wander from your ways, and harden our heart from your fear? Return for your servants’ sake, the tribes of your inheritance.

¹¹ He has turned away my ways, and pulled me in pieces. He has made me desolate.

¹⁶ If my head is held high, you hunt me like a lion. Again you show yourself powerful to me.

⁹ He lurks in secret as a lion in his ambush. He lies in wait to catch the helpless. He catches the helpless when he draws him in his net.

¹² He is like a lion that is greedy of his prey, as it were a young lion lurking in secret places.

¹⁴ For I will be to Ephraim like a lion, and like a young lion to the house of Judah. I myself will tear in pieces and go away. I will carry off, and there will be no one to deliver.

¹ “Come! Let’s return to Yahweh; for he has torn us to pieces, and he will heal us; he has injured us, and he will bind up our wounds.

⁷ Therefore I am like a lion to them. Like a leopard, I will lurk by the path. ⁸ I will meet them like a bear that is bereaved of her cubs, and will tear the covering of their heart. There I will devour them like a lioness. The wild animal will tear them.

⁷ But now, God, you have surely worn me out. You have made all my company desolate.

¹² I was at ease, and he broke me apart. Yes, he has taken me by the neck, and dashed me to pieces. He has also set me up for his target. ¹³ His archers surround me. He splits my kidneys apart, and does not spare. He pours out my bile on the ground.

²² “Now consider this, you who forget God, lest I tear you into pieces, and there be no one to deliver.

²⁶ Her gates shall lament and mourn. She shall be desolate and sit on the ground.

⁶ Therefore a lion out of the forest will kill them. A wolf of the evenings will destroy them. A leopard will watch against their cities. Everyone who goes out there will be torn in pieces, because their transgressions are many and their backsliding has increased.

⁸ Be instructed, Jerusalem, lest my soul be alienated from you, lest I make you a desolation, an uninhabited land.”

¹⁰ I will weep and wail for the mountains, and lament for the pastures of the wilderness, because they are burned up, so that no one passes through; Men can’t hear the voice of the livestock. Both the birds of the sky and the animals have fled. They are gone. ¹¹ “I will make Jerusalem heaps, a dwelling place of jackals. I will make the cities of Judah a desolation, without inhabitant.”

⁸ I will make this city an astonishment and a hissing. Everyone who passes by it will be astonished and hiss because of all its plagues.

⁴³ Fields will be bought in this land, about which you say, ‘It is desolate, without man or animal. It is given into the hand of the Chaldeans.’

²⁰ “You are my battle ax and weapons of war. With you I will break the nations into pieces. With you I will destroy kingdoms. ²¹ With you I will break in pieces the horse and his rider. ²² With you I will break in pieces the chariot and him who rides therein. With you I will break in pieces man and woman. With you I will break in pieces the old man and the youth. With you I will break in pieces the young man and the virgin.

¹³ “From on high has he sent fire into my bones, and it prevails against them. He has spread a net for my feet. He has turned me back. He has made me desolate and I faint all day long.

⁴⁰ The fourth kingdom will be strong as iron, because iron breaks in pieces and subdues all things; and as iron that crushes all these, it will break in pieces and crush. ⁴¹ Whereas you saw the feet and toes, part of potters’ clay, and part of iron, it will be a divided kingdom; but there will be in it of the strength of the iron, because you saw the iron mixed with miry clay. ⁴² As the toes of the feet were part of iron, and part of clay, so the kingdom will be partly strong, and partly broken. ⁴³ Whereas you saw the iron mixed with miry clay, they will mingle themselves with the seed of men; but they won’t cling to one another, even as iron does not mix with clay. ⁴⁴ “In the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which will never be destroyed, nor will its sovereignty be left to another people; but it will break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it will stand forever.

²³ “Thus he said, ‘The fourth animal will be a fourth kingdom on earth, which will be different from all the kingdoms, and will devour the whole earth, and will tread it down, and break it in pieces.

⁸ The remnant of Jacob will be among the nations, among many peoples, like a lion among the animals of the forest, like a young lion among the flocks of sheep; who, if he goes through, treads down and tears in pieces, and there is no one to deliver.

³⁸ Behold, your house is left to you desolate.

¹⁹ They cast dust on their heads, and cried, weeping and mourning, saying, ‘Woe, woe, the great city, in which all who had their ships in the sea were made rich by reason of her great wealth!’ For she is made desolate in one hour.

⁴ For the arrows of the Almighty are within me. My spirit drinks up their poison. The terrors of God set themselves in array against me.

²⁰ If I have sinned, what do I do to you, you watcher of men? Why have you set me as a mark for you, so that I am a burden to myself?

¹² If a man doesn’t repent, he will sharpen his sword; he has bent and strung his bow. ¹³ He has also prepared for himself the instruments of death. He makes ready his flaming arrows.

² For your arrows have pierced me, your hand presses hard on me.

⁴ He has bent his bow like an enemy. He has stood with his right hand as an adversary. Has killed all that were pleasant to the eye. In the tent of the daughter of Zion, he has poured out his wrath like fire.

²³ “I will heap evils on them. I will spend my arrows on them.

²⁸ The arrow can’t make him flee. Sling stones are like chaff to him.

² He spoke before his brothers and the army of Samaria, and said, “What are these feeble Jews doing? Will they fortify themselves? Will they sacrifice? Will they finish in a day? Will they revive the stones out of the heaps of rubbish, since they are burned?” ³ Now Tobiah the Ammonite was by him, and he said, “What they are building, if a fox climbed up it, he would break down their stone wall.” ⁴ “Hear, our God; for we are despised. Turn back their reproach on their own head. Give them up for a plunder in a land of captivity.

¹ “But now those who are younger than I have me in derision, whose fathers I considered unworthy to put with my sheep dogs. ² Of what use is the strength of their hands to me, men in whom ripe age has perished? ³ They are gaunt from lack and famine. They gnaw the dry ground, in the gloom of waste and desolation. ⁴ They pluck salt herbs by the bushes. The roots of the broom tree are their food. ⁵ They are driven out from among men. They cry after them as after a thief; ⁶ So that they dwell in frightful valleys, and in holes of the earth and of the rocks. ⁷ They bray among the bushes. They are gathered together under the nettles. ⁸ They are children of fools, yes, children of wicked men. They were flogged out of the land. ⁹ “Now I have become their song. Yes, I am a byword to them.

⁶ But I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised by the people. ⁷ All those who see me mock me. They insult me with their lips. They shake their heads, saying,

¹⁵ But in my adversity, they rejoiced, and gathered themselves together. The attackers gathered themselves together against me, and I didn’t know it. They tore at me, and didn’t cease. ¹⁶ Like the profane mockers in feasts, they gnashed their teeth at me.

¹³ You make us a reproach to our neighbors, a scoffing and a derision to those who are around us.

¹¹ When I made sackcloth my clothing, I became a byword to them. ¹² Those who sit in the gate talk about me. I am the song of the drunkards.

⁴ We have become a reproach to our neighbors, a scoffing and derision to those who are around us.

³ Have mercy on us, Yahweh, have mercy on us, for we have endured much contempt. ⁴ Our soul is exceedingly filled with the scoffing of those who are at ease, with the contempt of the proud.

³ For there, those who led us captive asked us for songs. Those who tormented us demanded songs of joy: “Sing us one of the songs of Zion!”

⁷ Yahweh, you have persuaded me, and I was persuaded. You are stronger than I, and have prevailed. I have become a laughingstock all day. Everyone mocks me.

²⁷ For wasn’t Israel a derision to you? Was he found among thieves? For as often as you speak of him, you shake your head.

⁶³ You see their sitting down and their rising up. I am their song.

³⁹ Those who passed by blasphemed him, wagging their heads, ⁴⁰ and saying, “You who destroy the temple, and build it in three days, save yourself! If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross!” ⁴¹ Likewise the chief priests also mocking, with the scribes, the Pharisees, and the elders, said, ⁴² “He saved others, but he can’t save himself. If he is the King of Israel, let him come down from the cross now, and we will believe in him. ⁴³ He trusts in God. Let God deliver him now, if he wants him; for he said, ‘I am the Son of God.’” ⁴⁴ The robbers also who were crucified with him cast on him the same reproach.

⁹ For, I think that God has displayed us, the apostles, last of all, like men sentenced to death. For we are made a spectacle to the world, both to angels and men. ¹⁰ We are fools for Christ’s sake, but you are wise in Christ. We are weak, but you are strong. You have honor, but we have dishonor. ¹¹ Even to this present hour we hunger, thirst, are naked, are beaten, and have no certain dwelling place. ¹² We toil, working with our own hands. When people curse us, we bless. Being persecuted, we endure. ¹³ Being defamed, we entreat. We are made as the filth of the world, the dirt wiped off by all, even until now.

²⁰ She said to them, “Don’t call me Naomi. Call me Mara, for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me.

¹⁸ He will not allow me to catch my breath, but fills me with bitterness.

³ You have shown your people hard things. You have made us drink the wine that makes us stagger.

¹⁷ Awake, awake! Stand up, Jerusalem, you who have drunk from Yahweh’s hand the cup of his wrath. You have drunken the bowl of the cup of staggering, and drained it. ¹⁸ There is no one to guide her among all the sons to whom she has given birth; and there is no one who takes her by the hand among all the sons whom she has brought up. ¹⁹ These two things have happened to you— who will grieve with you?— desolation and destruction, and famine and the sword. How can I comfort you? ²⁰ Your sons have fainted. They lie at the head of all the streets, like an antelope in a net. They are full of Yahweh’s wrath, the rebuke of your God. ²¹ Therefore now hear this, you afflicted, and drunken, but not with wine: ²² Your Lord Yahweh, your God who pleads the cause of his people, says, “Behold, I have taken out of your hand the cup of staggering, even the bowl of the cup of my wrath. You will not drink it any more.

¹⁵ For Yahweh, the God of Israel, says to me: “Take this cup of the wine of wrath from my hand, and cause all the nations to whom I send you to drink it. ¹⁶ They will drink, and reel back and forth, and be insane, because of the sword that I will send among them.” ¹⁷ Then I took the cup at Yahweh’s hand, and made all the nations to drink, to whom Yahweh had sent me: ¹⁸ Jerusalem, and the cities of Judah, with its kings and its princes, to make them a desolation, an astonishment, a hissing, and a curse, as it is today;

²⁷ “You shall tell them, ‘Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel says: “Drink, and be drunk, vomit, fall, and rise no more, because of the sword which I will send among you.”’

⁸ He took for himself a potsherd to scrape himself with, and he sat among the ashes.

¹⁰ The roaring of the lion, and the voice of the fierce lion, the teeth of the young lions, are broken.

⁷ Arise, Yahweh! Save me, my God! For you have struck all of my enemies on the cheek bone. You have broken the teeth of the wicked.

⁶ Break their teeth, God, in their mouth. Break out the great teeth of the young lions, Yahweh.

⁹ For I have eaten ashes like bread, and mixed my drink with tears,

¹⁷ Fraudulent food is sweet to a man, but afterwards his mouth is filled with gravel.

²⁶ Daughter of my people, clothe yourself with sackcloth, and wallow in ashes! Mourn, as for an only son, most bitter lamentation, for the destroyer will suddenly come on us.

⁶ The news reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and took off his royal robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes.

⁹ Or who is there among you, who, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone?

¹¹ “Which of you fathers, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, he won’t give him a snake instead of a fish, will he?

³⁰ Seven years of famine will arise after them, and all the plenty will be forgotten in the land of Egypt. The famine will consume the land,

⁷ Oh remember that my life is a breath. My eye will no more see good.

¹⁵⁵ Salvation is far from the wicked, for they don’t seek your statutes.

¹⁷ Behold, for peace I had great anguish, but you have in love for my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption; for you have cast all my sins behind your back.

¹⁰ For the mountains may depart, and the hills be removed; but my loving kindness will not depart from you, and my covenant of peace will not be removed,” says Yahweh who has mercy on you.

¹¹ We all roar like bears and moan bitterly like doves. We look for justice, but there is none, for salvation, but it is far off from us.

¹⁵ We looked for peace, but no good came; and for a time of healing, and behold, dismay!

¹⁹ Have you utterly rejected Judah? Has your soul loathed Zion? Why have you struck us, and there is no healing for us? We looked for peace, but no good came; and for a time of healing, and behold, dismay!

⁵ For Yahweh says, “Don’t enter into the house of mourning. Don’t go to lament. Don’t bemoan them, for I have taken away my peace from this people,” says Yahweh, “even loving kindness and tender mercies.

¹⁶ “For these things I weep. My eye, my eye runs down with water, because the comforter who should refresh my soul is far from me. My children are desolate, because the enemy has prevailed.”

¹⁰ For before those days there was no wages for man, nor any wages for an animal; neither was there any peace to him who went out or came in, because of the adversary. For I set all men everyone against his neighbor.

¹ David said in his heart, “I will now perish one day by the hand of Saul. There is nothing better for me than that I should escape into the land of the Philistines; and Saul will despair of me, to seek me any more in all the borders of Israel. So shall I escape out of his hand.”

¹¹ What is my strength, that I should wait? What is my end, that I should be patient?

¹⁵ where then is my hope? As for my hope, who will see it?

²² As for me, I said in my haste, “I am cut off from before your eyes.” Nevertheless you heard the voice of my petitions when I cried to you.

¹¹ I said in my haste, “All people are liars.”

¹¹ Then he said to me, “Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. Behold, they say, ‘Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost. We are completely cut off.’

³² Now therefore, our God, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who keeps covenant and loving kindness, don’t let all the travail seem little before you, that has come on us, on our kings, on our princes, on our priests, on our prophets, on our fathers, and on all your people, since the time of the kings of Assyria to this day.

⁴⁷ Remember how short my time is, for what vanity you have created all the children of men!

⁵⁰ Remember, Lord, the reproach of your servants, how I bear in my heart the taunts of all the mighty peoples,

¹ A Song of Ascents. Yahweh, remember David and all his affliction,

⁵ He has built against me, and surrounded me with bitterness and hardship.

¹⁵ He has filled me with bitterness. He has stuffed me with wormwood.

⁶ When I remember, I am troubled. Horror takes hold of my flesh.

⁵ Why are you in despair, my soul? Why are you disturbed within me? Hope in God! For I shall still praise him for the saving help of his presence. ⁶ My God, my soul is in despair within me. Therefore I remember you from the land of the Jordan, the heights of Hermon, from the hill Mizar.

¹¹ Why are you in despair, my soul? Why are you disturbed within me? Hope in God! For I shall still praise him, the saving help of my countenance, and my God.

⁵ Why are you in despair, my soul? Why are you disturbed within me? Hope in God! For I shall still praise him: my Savior, my helper, and my God.

²⁵ For our soul is bowed down to the dust. Our body clings to the earth.

⁸ Yahweh opens the eyes of the blind. Yahweh raises up those who are bowed down. Yahweh loves the righteous.

⁷ “Will the Lord reject us forever? Will he be favorable no more? ⁸ Has his loving kindness vanished forever? Does his promise fail for generations? ⁹ Has God forgotten to be gracious? Has he, in anger, withheld his compassion?” Selah. ¹⁰ Then I thought, “I will appeal to this: the years of the right hand of the Most High.” ¹¹ I will remember Yah’s deeds; for I will remember your wonders of old.

⁸¹ KAF My soul faints for your salvation. I hope in your word.

⁷ Israel, hope in Yahweh, for there is loving kindness with Yahweh. Abundant redemption is with him.

²⁴ “Yahweh is my portion,” says my soul. “Therefore I will hope in him.” ²⁵ Yahweh is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him. ²⁶ It is good that a man should hope and quietly wait for the salvation of Yahweh. ²⁷ It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth. ²⁸ Let him sit alone and keep silence, because he has laid it on him. ²⁹ Let him put his mouth in the dust, if it is so that there may be hope.

³ For the vision is yet for the appointed time, and it hurries toward the end, and won’t prove false. Though it takes time, wait for it; because it will surely come. It won’t delay.

⁸ Now for a little moment grace has been shown from Yahweh our God, to leave us a remnant to escape, and to give us a nail in his holy place, that our God may lighten our eyes, and revived us a little in our bondage. ⁹ For we are bondservants; yet our God has not forsaken us in our bondage, but has extended loving kindness to us in the sight of the kings of Persia, to revive us, to set up the house of our God, and to repair its ruins, and to give us a wall in Judah and in Jerusalem.

¹³ “After all that has come on us for our evil deeds, and for our great guilt, since you, our God, have punished us less than our iniquities deserve, and have given us such a remnant, ¹⁴ shall we again break your commandments, and join ourselves with the peoples that do these abominations? Wouldn’t you be angry with us until you had consumed us, so that there would be no remnant, nor any to escape? ¹⁵ Yahweh, the God of Israel, you are righteous; for we are left a remnant that has escaped, as it is today. Behold, we are before you in our guiltiness; for no one can stand before you because of this.”

³¹ “Nevertheless in your manifold mercies you didn’t make a full end of them, nor forsake them; for you are a gracious and merciful God.

⁸ Has his loving kindness vanished forever? Does his promise fail for generations?

³⁸ But he, being merciful, forgave iniquity, and didn’t destroy them. Yes, many times he turned his anger away, and didn’t stir up all his wrath.

¹⁵ But you, Lord, are a merciful and gracious God, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness and truth.

⁴⁵ He remembered for them his covenant, and repented according to the multitude of his loving kindnesses.

⁸ “‘“But they rebelled against me, and would not listen to me. They didn’t all throw away the abominations of their eyes. They also didn’t forsake the idols of Egypt. Then I said I would pour out my wrath on them, to accomplish my anger against them in the middle of the land of Egypt. ⁹ But I worked for my name’s sake, that it should not be profaned in the sight of the nations, among which they were, in whose sight I made myself known to them, in bringing them out of the land of Egypt.

¹³ “‘“But the house of Israel rebelled against me in the wilderness. They didn’t walk in my statutes, and they rejected my ordinances, which if a man keeps, he shall live in them. They greatly profaned my Sabbaths. Then I said I would pour out my wrath on them in the wilderness, to consume them. ¹⁴ But I worked for my name’s sake, that it should not be profaned in the sight of the nations, in whose sight I brought them out.

²¹ “‘“But the children rebelled against me. They didn’t walk in my statutes, and didn’t keep my ordinances to do them, which if a man does, he shall live in them. They profaned my Sabbaths. Then I said I would pour out my wrath on them, to accomplish my anger against them in the wilderness. ²² Nevertheless I withdrew my hand, and worked for my name’s sake, that it should not be profaned in the sight of the nations, in whose sight I brought them out.

¹⁸ Who is a God like you, who pardons iniquity, and passes over the disobedience of the remnant of his heritage? He doesn’t retain his anger forever, because he delights in loving kindness. ¹⁹ He will again have compassion on us. He will tread our iniquities under foot; and you will cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.

⁶ “For I, Yahweh, don’t change; therefore you, sons of Jacob, are not consumed.

⁵⁰ His mercy is for generations of generations on those who fear him.

⁶ Yahweh passed by before him, and proclaimed, “Yahweh! Yahweh, a merciful and gracious God, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness and truth,

⁵ For his anger is but for a moment. His favor is for a lifetime. Weeping may stay for the night, but joy comes in the morning.

⁵ Your loving kindness, Yahweh, is in the heavens. Your faithfulness reaches to the skies.

¹ A contemplation by Ethan, the Ezrahite. I will sing of the loving kindness of Yahweh forever. With my mouth, I will make known your faithfulness to all generations. ² I indeed declare, “Love stands firm forever. You established the heavens. Your faithfulness is in them.”

³³ But I will not completely take my loving kindness from him, nor allow my faithfulness to fail.

⁶ who made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them; who keeps truth forever;

² Yahweh, be gracious to us. We have waited for you. Be our strength every morning, our salvation also in the time of trouble.

⁵ Yahweh, within her, is righteous. He will do no wrong. Every morning he brings his justice to light. He doesn’t fail, but the unjust know no shame.

² in hope of eternal life, which God, who can’t lie, promised before time began;

¹⁸ that by two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we may have a strong encouragement, who have fled for refuge to take hold of the hope set before us.

²³ let’s hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering; for he who promised is faithful.

⁶ David was greatly distressed; for the people spoke of stoning him, because the souls of all the people were grieved, every man for his sons and for his daughters; but David strengthened himself in Yahweh his God.

²⁰ They were helped against them, and the Hagrites were delivered into their hand, and all who were with them; for they cried to God in the battle, and he answered them, because they put their trust in him.

¹⁵ Behold, he will kill me. I have no hope. Nevertheless, I will maintain my ways before him.

⁵ Yahweh assigned my portion and my cup. You made my lot secure.

²⁴ Be strong, and let your heart take courage, all you who hope in Yahweh.

¹⁸ Behold, Yahweh’s eye is on those who fear him, on those who hope in his loving kindness,

⁸ Trust in him at all times, you people. Pour out your heart before him. God is a refuge for us. Selah.

²⁶ My flesh and my heart fails, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

¹² Yahweh of Armies, blessed is the man who trusts in you.

⁵⁷ CHET Yahweh is my portion. I promised to obey your words.

⁵ I cried to you, Yahweh. I said, “You are my refuge, my portion in the land of the living.”

¹⁶ The portion of Jacob is not like these; for he is the maker of all things; and Israel is the tribe of his inheritance: Yahweh of Armies is his name.

¹⁹ The portion of Jacob is not like these, for he is the former of all things; including the tribe of his inheritance: Yahweh of Armies is his name.

²¹ This I recall to my mind; therefore I have hope.

¹² Again, Isaiah says, “There will be the root of Jesse, he who arises to rule over the Gentiles; in him the Gentiles will hope.”

²¹ who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead, and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope might be in God.

¹⁸ I have waited for your salvation, Yahweh.

⁹ You, Solomon my son, know the God of your father, and serve him with a perfect heart and with a willing mind; for Yahweh searches all hearts, and understands all the imaginations of the thoughts. If you seek him, he will be found by you; but if you forsake him, he will cast you off forever.

² and he went out to meet Asa, and said to him, “Hear me, Asa, and all Judah and Benjamin! Yahweh is with you, while you are with him; and if you seek him, he will be found by you; but if you forsake him, he will forsake you.

³ Nevertheless there are good things found in you, in that you have put away the Asheroth out of the land, and have set your heart to seek God.”

¹⁹ who sets his heart to seek God, Yahweh, the God of his fathers, even if they aren’t clean according to the purification of the sanctuary.”

²¹ In every work that he began in the service of God’s house, in the law, and in the commandments, to seek his God, he did it with all his heart, and prospered.

²⁶ The humble shall eat and be satisfied. They shall praise Yahweh who seek after him. Let your hearts live forever.

⁸ Good and upright is Yahweh, therefore he will instruct sinners in the way.

⁸ When you said, “Seek my face,” my heart said to you, “I will seek your face, Yahweh.”

¹⁴ Wait for Yahweh. Be strong, and let your heart take courage. Yes, wait for Yahweh.

⁷ Rest in Yahweh, and wait patiently for him. Don’t fret because of him who prospers in his way, because of the man who makes wicked plots happen.

³⁴ Wait for Yahweh, and keep his way, and he will exalt you to inherit the land. When the wicked are cut off, you shall see it.

⁷ Now, Lord, what do I wait for? My hope is in you.

¹ For the Chief Musician. A Psalm by David. I waited patiently for Yahweh. He turned to me, and heard my cry. ² He brought me up also out of a horrible pit, out of the miry clay. He set my feet on a rock, and gave me a firm place to stand. ³ He has put a new song in my mouth, even praise to our God. Many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in Yahweh. ⁴ Blessed is the man who makes Yahweh his trust, and doesn’t respect the proud, nor such as turn away to lies. ⁵ Many, Yahweh, my God, are the wonderful works which you have done, and your thoughts which are toward us. They can’t be declared back to you. If I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be counted.

¹ For the Chief Musician. For a stringed instrument. By David. Hear my cry, God. Listen to my prayer.

⁵ For you, God, have heard my vows. You have given me the heritage of those who fear your name.

³² The humble have seen it, and are glad. You who seek after God, let your heart live.

³ Glory in his holy name. Let the heart of those who seek Yahweh rejoice.

² Blessed are those who keep his statutes, who seek him with their whole heart.

⁵ I wait for Yahweh. My soul waits. I hope in his word. ⁶ My soul longs for the Lord more than watchmen long for the morning, more than watchmen for the morning.

⁹ It shall be said in that day, “Behold, this is our God! We have waited for him, and he will save us! This is Yahweh! We have waited for him. We will be glad and rejoice in his salvation!”

⁹ With my soul I have desired you in the night. Yes, with my spirit within me I will seek you earnestly; for when your judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness.

¹⁸ Therefore Yahweh will wait, that he may be gracious to you; and therefore he will be exalted, that he may have mercy on you, for Yahweh is a God of justice. Blessed are all those who wait for him.

³¹ but those who wait for Yahweh will renew their strength. They will mount up with wings like eagles. They will run, and not be weary. They will walk, and not faint.

⁶ Seek Yahweh while he may be found. Call on him while he is near.

⁴ For from of old men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, nor has the eye seen a God besides you, who works for him who waits for him.

²⁶ It is good that a man should hope and quietly wait for the salvation of Yahweh.

¹² Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap according to kindness. Break up your fallow ground; for it is time to seek Yahweh, until he comes and rains righteousness on you.

⁷ But as for me, I will look to Yahweh. I will wait for the God of my salvation. My God will hear me. ⁸ Don’t rejoice against me, my enemy. When I fall, I will arise. When I sit in darkness, Yahweh will be a light to me.

⁸ “Therefore wait for me”, says Yahweh, “until the day that I rise up to the prey, for my determination is to gather the nations, that I may assemble the kingdoms, to pour on them my indignation, even all my fierce anger, for all the earth will be devoured with the fire of my jealousy.

¹⁰ and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead: Jesus, who delivers us from the wrath to come.

⁷ Be patient therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. Behold, the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient over it, until it receives the early and late rain.

¹³ Moses said to the people, “Don’t be afraid. Stand still, and see the salvation of Yahweh, which he will work for you today; for you will never again see the Egyptians whom you have seen today.

¹⁷ You will not need to fight this battle. Set yourselves, stand still, and see the salvation of Yahweh with you, O Judah and Jerusalem. Don’t be afraid, nor be dismayed. Go out against them tomorrow, for Yahweh is with you.’”

⁹ I will give you thanks forever, because you have done it. I will hope in your name, for it is good, in the presence of your saints.

⁶ With a free will offering, I will sacrifice to you. I will give thanks to your name, Yahweh, for it is good.

²⁸ But it is good for me to come close to God. I have made the Lord Yahweh my refuge, that I may tell of all your works.

¹ A Psalm. A song for the Sabbath day. It is a good thing to give thanks to Yahweh, to sing praises to your name, Most High,

¹⁶⁶ I have hoped for your salvation, Yahweh. I have done your commandments.

¹⁷⁴ I have longed for your salvation, Yahweh. Your law is my delight.

⁵ I wait for Yahweh. My soul waits. I hope in his word.

⁷ For Egypt helps in vain, and to no purpose; therefore I have called her Rahab who sits still.

¹⁵ For thus said the Lord Yahweh, the Holy One of Israel, “You will be saved in returning and rest. Your strength will be in quietness and in confidence.” You refused,

¹⁸ But it is always good to be zealous in a good cause, and not only when I am present with you.

¹⁴ For we have become partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence firm to the end,

³⁵ Therefore don’t throw away your boldness, which has a great reward.

¹³ Therefore prepare your minds for action. Be sober, and set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ—

¹² So teach us to count our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.

¹² Blessed is the man whom you discipline, Yah, and teach out of your law,

⁷¹ It is good for me that I have been afflicted, that I may learn your statutes.

¹ Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come, and the years draw near, when you will say, “I have no pleasure in them;”

²⁹ Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart; and you will find rest for your souls. ³⁰ For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

⁵ You have forgotten the exhortation which reasons with you as with children, “My son, don’t take lightly the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when you are reproved by him; ⁶ for whom the Lord loves, he disciplines, and chastises every son whom he receives.” ⁷ It is for discipline that you endure. God deals with you as with children, for what son is there whom his father doesn’t discipline? ⁸ But if you are without discipline, of which all have been made partakers, then you are illegitimate, and not children. ⁹ Furthermore, we had the fathers of our flesh to chasten us, and we paid them respect. Shall we not much rather be in subjection to the Father of spirits, and live? ¹⁰ For they indeed, for a few days, punished us as seemed good to them; but he for our profit, that we may be partakers of his holiness. ¹¹ All chastening seems for the present to be not joyous but grievous; yet afterward it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. ¹² Therefore lift up the hands that hang down and the feeble knees,

⁹ I was mute. I didn’t open my mouth, because you did it.

⁷ I watch, and have become like a sparrow that is alone on the housetop.

¹⁷ I didn’t sit in the assembly of those who make merry and rejoice. I sat alone because of your hand, for you have filled me with indignation.

¹⁰ The elders of the daughter of Zion sit on the ground. They keep silence. They have cast up dust on their heads. They have clothed themselves with sackcloth. The virgins of Jerusalem hang down their heads to the ground.

¹² When he was in distress, he begged Yahweh his God, and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers.

⁴ “Behold, I am of small account. What will I answer you? I lay my hand on my mouth.

⁵ I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you. ⁶ Therefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.”

¹⁷ There is hope for your latter end,” says Yahweh. “Your children will come again to their own territory.

⁶³ that you may remember, and be confounded, and never open your mouth any more, because of your shame, when I have forgiven you all that you have done,” says the Lord Yahweh.’”

¹⁴ Who knows? He may turn and relent, and leave a blessing behind him, even a meal offering and a drink offering to Yahweh, your God.

⁹ Who knows whether God will not turn and relent, and turn away from his fierce anger, so that we might not perish?”

³ Seek Yahweh, all you humble of the land, who have kept his ordinances. Seek righteousness. Seek humility. It may be that you will be hidden in the day of Yahweh’s anger.

¹⁸ I will get up and go to my father, and will tell him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in your sight. ¹⁹ I am no more worthy to be called your son. Make me as one of your hired servants.”’

¹³ But the tax collector, standing far away, wouldn’t even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’

¹⁹ Now we know that whatever things the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be closed, and all the world may be brought under the judgment of God.

¹⁰ They have gaped on me with their mouth. They have struck me on the cheek reproachfully. They gather themselves together against me.

⁹ For the zeal of your house consumes me. The reproaches of those who reproach you have fallen on me.

²⁰ Reproach has broken my heart, and I am full of heaviness. I looked for some to take pity, but there was none; for comforters, but I found none.

³ Have mercy on us, Yahweh, have mercy on us, for we have endured much contempt.

⁶ I gave my back to those who beat me, and my cheeks to those who plucked off the hair. I didn’t hide my face from shame and spitting.

¹ Now you shall gather yourself in troops, daughter of troops. He has laid siege against us. They will strike the judge of Israel with a rod on the cheek.

³⁹ But I tell you, don’t resist him who is evil; but whoever strikes you on your right cheek, turn to him the other also.

⁶⁷ Then they spat in his face and beat him with their fists, and some slapped him,

²⁹ To him who strikes you on the cheek, offer also the other; and from him who takes away your cloak, don’t withhold your coat also.

²⁰ For you bear with a man if he brings you into bondage, if he devours you, if he takes you captive, if he exalts himself, or if he strikes you on the face.

²² For Yahweh will not forsake his people for his great name’s sake, because it has pleased Yahweh to make you a people for himself.

⁷ “Will the Lord reject us forever? Will he be favorable no more?

¹⁴ For Yahweh won’t reject his people, neither will he forsake his inheritance.

⁸ Yahweh is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness. ⁹ He will not always accuse; neither will he stay angry forever. ¹⁰ He has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor repaid us for our iniquities.

⁷ “For a small moment I have forsaken you, but I will gather you with great mercies. ⁸ In overflowing wrath I hid my face from you for a moment, but with everlasting loving kindness I will have mercy on you,” says Yahweh your Redeemer. ⁹ “For this is like the waters of Noah to me; for as I have sworn that the waters of Noah will no more go over the earth, so I have sworn that I will not be angry with you, nor rebuke you. ¹⁰ For the mountains may depart, and the hills be removed; but my loving kindness will not depart from you, and my covenant of peace will not be removed,” says Yahweh who has mercy on you.

¹⁶ For I will not contend forever, neither will I always be angry; for the spirit would faint before me, and the souls whom I have made.

³⁷ Yahweh says: “If heaven above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, then I will also cast off all the offspring of Israel for all that they have done,” says Yahweh.

⁴⁰ I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from following them, to do them good. I will put my fear in their hearts, that they may not depart from me.

²⁴ “Don’t consider what this people has spoken, saying, ‘Has Yahweh cast off the two families which he chose?’ Thus they despise my people, that they should be no more a nation before them.”

¹⁸ Who is a God like you, who pardons iniquity, and passes over the disobedience of the remnant of his heritage? He doesn’t retain his anger forever, because he delights in loving kindness.

¹ I ask then, did God reject his people? May it never be! For I also am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. ² God didn’t reject his people, which he foreknew. Or don’t you know what the Scripture says about Elijah? How he pleads with God against Israel: ³ “Lord, they have killed your prophets, they have broken down your altars. I am left alone, and they seek my life.” ⁴ But how does God answer him? “I have reserved for myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal.” ⁵ Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace. ⁶ And if by grace, then it is no longer of works; otherwise grace is no longer grace. But if it is of works, it is no longer grace; otherwise work is no longer work.

²³ In the course of those many days, the king of Egypt died, and the children of Israel sighed because of the bondage, and they cried, and their cry came up to God because of the bondage.

⁷ Yahweh said, “I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows.

¹⁶ They put away the foreign gods from among them and served Yahweh; and his soul was grieved for the misery of Israel.

²³ But Yahweh was gracious to them, and had compassion on them, and had respect for them, because of his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and would not destroy them, and he didn’t cast them from his presence as yet.

¹¹ For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is his loving kindness toward those who fear him.

⁴³ He rescued them many times, but they were rebellious in their counsel, and were brought low in their iniquity. ⁴⁴ Nevertheless he regarded their distress, when he heard their cry. ⁴⁵ He remembered for them his covenant, and repented according to the multitude of his loving kindnesses.

²⁰ Is Ephraim my dear son? Is he a darling child? For as often as I speak against him, I still earnestly remember him. therefore my heart yearns for him. I will surely have mercy on him,” says Yahweh.

²² It is because of Yahweh’s loving kindnesses that we are not consumed, because his compassion doesn’t fail.

⁸ “How can I give you up, Ephraim? How can I hand you over, Israel? How can I make you like Admah? How can I make you like Zeboiim? My heart is turned within me, my compassion is aroused.

²⁰ “He arose, and came to his father. But while he was still far off, his father saw him, and was moved with compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him.

²¹ For Yahweh will rise up as on Mount Perazim. He will be angry as in the valley of Gibeon; that he may do his work, his unusual work, and bring to pass his act, his extraordinary act.

³² For I have no pleasure in the death of him who dies,” says the Lord Yahweh. “Therefore turn yourselves, and live!

¹¹ Tell them, ‘“As I live,” says the Lord Yahweh, “I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn, turn from your evil ways! For why will you die, house of Israel?”’

⁹ Furthermore, we had the fathers of our flesh to chasten us, and we paid them respect. Shall we not much rather be in subjection to the Father of spirits, and live? ¹⁰ For they indeed, for a few days, punished us as seemed good to them; but he for our profit, that we may be partakers of his holiness.

³³ For Yahweh hears the needy, and doesn’t despise his captive people.

¹¹ Let the sighing of the prisoner come before you. According to the greatness of your power, preserve those who are sentenced to death.

²⁰ to hear the groans of the prisoner; to free those who are condemned to death;

¹⁷ who made the world like a wilderness, and overthrew its cities, who didn’t release his prisoners to their home?”

⁹ saying to those who are bound, ‘Come out!’; to those who are in darkness, ‘Show yourselves!’ “They shall feed along the paths, and their pasture shall be on all treeless heights.

²² Your Lord Yahweh, your God who pleads the cause of his people, says, “Behold, I have taken out of your hand the cup of staggering, even the bowl of the cup of my wrath. You will not drink it any more. ²³ I will put it into the hand of those who afflict you, who have said to your soul, ‘Bow down, that we may walk over you;’ and you have laid your back as the ground, like a street to those who walk over.”

³³ Yahweh of Armies says: “The children of Israel and the children of Judah are oppressed together. All who took them captive hold them fast. They refuse to let them go. ³⁴ Their Redeemer is strong: Yahweh of Armies is his name. He will thoroughly plead their cause, that he may give rest to the earth, and disquiet the inhabitants of Babylon.

³³ For Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel says: “The daughter of Babylon is like a threshing floor at the time when it is trodden. Yet a little while, and the time of harvest comes for her.” ³⁴ “Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon has devoured me. He has crushed me. He has made me an empty vessel. He has, like a monster, swallowed me up. He has filled his mouth with my delicacies. He has cast me out. ³⁵ May the violence done to me and to my flesh be on Babylon!” the inhabitant of Zion will say; and, “May my blood be on the inhabitants of Chaldea!” will Jerusalem say. ³⁶ Therefore Yahweh says: “Behold, I will plead your cause, and take vengeance for you. I will dry up her sea, and make her fountain dry.

¹¹ As for you also, because of the blood of your covenant, I have set free your prisoners from the pit in which is no water. ¹² Turn to the stronghold, you prisoners of hope! Even today I declare that I will restore double to you.

²⁷ When the mourning was past, David sent and took her home to his house, and she became his wife, and bore him a son. But the thing that David had done displeased Yahweh.

¹⁵ Yes, truth is lacking; and he who departs from evil makes himself a prey. Yahweh saw it, and it displeased him that there was no justice.

³ Yahweh says: “Execute justice and righteousness, and deliver him who is robbed out of the hand of the oppressor. Do no wrong. Do no violence to the foreigner, the fatherless, or the widow. Don’t shed innocent blood in this place.

¹³ You who have purer eyes than to see evil, and who cannot look on perversity, why do you tolerate those who deal treacherously, and keep silent when the wicked swallows up the man who is more righteous than he,

⁹ For he spoke, and it was done. He commanded, and it stood firm. ¹⁰ Yahweh brings the counsel of the nations to nothing. He makes the thoughts of the peoples to be of no effect. ¹¹ The counsel of Yahweh stands fast forever, the thoughts of his heart to all generations.

⁹ A man’s heart plans his course, but Yahweh directs his steps.

²¹ There are many plans in a man’s heart, but Yahweh’s counsel will prevail.

³⁰ There is no wisdom nor understanding nor counsel against Yahweh.

¹⁰ I declare the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things that are not yet done. I say: My counsel will stand, and I will do all that I please.

³⁵ All the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing; and he does according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth; and no one can stop his hand, or ask him, “What are you doing?”

¹⁵ For he said to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.”

¹¹ We were also assigned an inheritance in him, having been foreordained according to the purpose of him who does all things after the counsel of his will,

¹³ Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow let’s go into this city, and spend a year there, trade, and make a profit.” ¹⁴ Whereas you don’t know what your life will be like tomorrow. For what is your life? For you are a vapor that appears for a little time, and then vanishes away. ¹⁵ For you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will both live, and do this or that.”

¹⁰ But he said to her, “You speak as one of the foolish women would speak. What? Shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?” In all this Job didn’t sin with his lips.

⁷ But God is the judge. He puts down one, and lifts up another.

²⁶ Many seek the ruler’s favor, but a man’s justice comes from Yahweh.

⁷ I form the light and create darkness. I make peace and create calamity. I am Yahweh, who does all these things.

⁴² For Yahweh says: “Just as I have brought all this great evil on this people, so I will bring on them all the good that I have promised them.

⁶ Does the trumpet alarm sound in a city, without the people being afraid? Does evil happen to a city, and Yahweh hasn’t done it?

⁵ but he didn’t respect Cain and his offering. Cain was very angry, and the expression on his face fell. ⁶ Yahweh said to Cain, “Why are you angry? Why has the expression of your face fallen? ⁷ If you do well, won’t it be lifted up? If you don’t do well, sin crouches at the door. Its desire is for you, but you are to rule over it.”

¹³ Cain said to Yahweh, “My punishment is greater than I can bear. ¹⁴ Behold, you have driven me out today from the surface of the ground. I will be hidden from your face, and I will be a fugitive and a wanderer in the earth. Whoever finds me will kill me.”

⁴¹ I also walked contrary to them, and brought them into the land of their enemies; if then their uncircumcised heart is humbled, and they then accept the punishment of their iniquity,

⁴³ The land also will be left by them, and will enjoy its Sabbaths while it lies desolate without them; and they will accept the punishment of their iniquity because they rejected my ordinances, and their soul abhorred my statutes.

¹¹ Moses said to Yahweh, “Why have you treated your servant so badly? Why haven’t I found favor in your sight, that you lay the burden of all this people on me?

⁴¹ But on the next day all the congregation of the children of Israel complained against Moses and against Aaron, saying, “You have killed Yahweh’s people!”

¹² The children of Israel spoke to Moses, saying, “Behold, we perish! We are undone! We are all undone!

⁶ Joshua tore his clothes, and fell to the earth on his face before Yahweh’s ark until the evening, he and the elders of Israel; and they put dust on their heads. ⁷ Joshua said, “Alas, Lord Yahweh, why have you brought this people over the Jordan at all, to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites, to cause us to perish? I wish that we had been content and lived beyond the Jordan! ⁸ Oh, Lord, what shall I say, after Israel has turned their backs before their enemies? ⁹ For the Canaanites and all the inhabitants of the land will hear of it, and will surround us, and cut off our name from the earth. What will you do for your great name?” ¹⁰ Yahweh said to Joshua, “Get up! Why have you fallen on your face like that? ¹¹ Israel has sinned. Yes, they have even transgressed my covenant which I commanded them. Yes, they have even taken some of the devoted things, and have also stolen, and also deceived. They have even put it among their own stuff. ¹² Therefore the children of Israel can’t stand before their enemies. They turn their backs before their enemies, because they have become devoted for destruction. I will not be with you any more, unless you destroy the devoted things from among you. ¹³ Get up! Sanctify the people, and say, ‘Sanctify yourselves for tomorrow, for Yahweh, the God of Israel, says, “There is a devoted thing among you, Israel. You cannot stand before your enemies until you take away the devoted thing from among you.”

⁷ Yahweh’s anger burned against Uzzah; and God struck him there for his error; and he died there by God’s ark. ⁸ David was displeased, because Yahweh had broken out against Uzzah; and he called that place Perez Uzzah, to this day.

¹³ Elisha said to the king of Israel, “What have I to do with you? Go to the prophets of your father, and to the prophets of your mother.” The king of Israel said to him, “No, for Yahweh has called these three kings together to deliver them into the hand of Moab.”

³² But Elisha was sitting in his house, and the elders were sitting with him. Then the king sent a man from before him; but before the messenger came to him, he said to the elders, “Do you see how this son of a murderer has sent to take away my head? Behold, when the messenger comes, shut the door, and hold the door shut against him. Isn’t the sound of his master’s feet behind him?”

¹³ “After all that has come on us for our evil deeds, and for our great guilt, since you, our God, have punished us less than our iniquities deserve, and have given us such a remnant,

⁶ that he would show you the secrets of wisdom! For true wisdom has two sides. Know therefore that God exacts of you less than your iniquity deserves.

³ The foolishness of man subverts his way; his heart rages against Yahweh.

¹⁷ Behold, for peace I had great anguish, but you have in love for my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption; for you have cast all my sins behind your back. ¹⁸ For Sheol can’t praise you. Death can’t celebrate you. Those who go down into the pit can’t hope for your truth. ¹⁹ The living, the living, he shall praise you, as I do today. The father shall make known your truth to the children.

²⁰ Your sons have fainted. They lie at the head of all the streets, like an antelope in a net. They are full of Yahweh’s wrath, the rebuke of your God.

¹⁵ Why do you cry over your injury? Your pain is incurable. For the greatness of your iniquity, because your sins have increased, I have done these things to you.

³ For you threw me into the depths, in the heart of the seas. The flood was all around me. All your waves and your billows passed over me. ⁴ I said, ‘I have been banished from your sight; yet I will look again toward your holy temple.’

⁸ When the sun arose, God prepared a sultry east wind; and the sun beat on Jonah’s head, so that he fainted, and requested for himself that he might die, and said, “It is better for me to die than to live.” ⁹ God said to Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry about the vine?” He said, “I am right to be angry, even to death.”

⁹ I will bear the indignation of Yahweh, because I have sinned against him, until he pleads my case, and executes judgment for me. He will bring me out to the light. I will see his righteousness.

⁹ People were scorched with great heat, and people blasphemed the name of God who has the power over these plagues. They didn’t repent and give him glory.

³⁰ When you are in oppression, and all these things have come on you, in the latter days you shall return to Yahweh your God and listen to his voice.

¹² and said to them, “You are the heads of the fathers’ households of the Levites. Sanctify yourselves, both you and your brothers, that you may bring the ark of Yahweh, the God of Israel, up to the place that I have prepared for it. ¹³ For because you didn’t carry it at first, Yahweh our God broke out in anger against us, because we didn’t seek him according to the ordinance.”

⁶ So the couriers went with the letters from the king and his princes throughout all Israel and Judah, and according to the commandment of the king, saying, “You children of Israel, turn again to Yahweh, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, that he may return to the remnant of you that have escaped out of the hand of the kings of Assyria.

⁹ For if you turn again to Yahweh, your brothers and your children will find compassion before those who led them captive, and will come again into this land, because Yahweh your God is gracious and merciful, and will not turn away his face from you, if you return to him.”

¹³ “If you set your heart aright, stretch out your hands toward him. ¹⁴ If iniquity is in your hand, put it far away. Don’t let unrighteousness dwell in your tents. ¹⁵ Surely then you will lift up your face without spot; Yes, you will be steadfast, and will not fear:

³¹ “For has any said to God, ‘I am guilty, but I will not offend any more. ³² Teach me that which I don’t see. If I have done iniquity, I will do it no more’?

⁴ Stand in awe, and don’t sin. Search your own heart on your bed, and be still. Selah.

⁵⁹ I considered my ways, and turned my steps to your statutes.

²³ Search me, God, and know my heart. Try me, and know my thoughts. ²⁴ See if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the everlasting way.

⁷ Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts. Let him return to Yahweh, and he will have mercy on him, to our God, for he will freely pardon.

²⁸ Because he considers, and turns away from all his transgressions that he has committed, he shall surely live. He shall not die.

⁶ Therefore turn to your God. Keep kindness and justice, and wait continually for your God.

¹ Israel, return to Yahweh your God; for you have fallen because of your sin. ² Take words with you, and return to Yahweh. Tell him, “Forgive all our sins, and accept that which is good: so we offer our lips like bulls. ³ Assyria can’t save us. We won’t ride on horses; neither will we say any more to the work of our hands, ‘Our gods!’ for in you the fatherless finds mercy.”

¹² “Yet even now,” says Yahweh, “turn to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning.” ¹³ Tear your heart, and not your garments, and turn to Yahweh, your God; for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness, and relents from sending calamity.

⁵ Now therefore this is what Yahweh of Armies says: Consider your ways. ⁶ You have sown much, and bring in little. You eat, but you don’t have enough. You drink, but you aren’t filled with drink. You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm, and he who earns wages earns wages to put them into a bag with holes in it.” ⁷ This is what Yahweh of Armies says: “Consider your ways. ⁸ Go up to the mountain, bring wood, and build the house. I will take pleasure in it, and I will be glorified,” says Yahweh. ⁹ “You looked for much, and, behold, it came to little; and when you brought it home, I blew it away. Why?” says Yahweh of Armies, “Because of my house that lies waste, while each of you is busy with his own house.

³ Therefore tell them: Yahweh of Armies says: ‘Return to me,’ says Yahweh of Armies, ‘and I will return to you,’ says Yahweh of Armies. ⁴ Don’t you be like your fathers, to whom the former prophets proclaimed, saying: Yahweh of Armies says, ‘Return now from your evil ways, and from your evil doings;’ but they didn’t hear, nor listen to me, says Yahweh.

²⁰ but declared first to them of Damascus, at Jerusalem, and throughout all the country of Judea, and also to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, doing works worthy of repentance.

²⁸ But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread, and drink of the cup.

³¹ For if we discerned ourselves, we wouldn’t be judged.

⁵ Examine your own selves, whether you are in the faith. Test your own selves. Or don’t you know about your own selves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you are disqualified.

¹ By David. To you, Yahweh, I lift up my soul.

² Hear the voice of my petitions, when I cry to you, when I lift up my hands toward your Most Holy Place.

⁴ So I will bless you while I live. I will lift up my hands in your name.

⁴ Bring joy to the soul of your servant, for to you, Lord, do I lift up my soul.

² Let my prayer be set before you like incense; the lifting up of my hands like the evening sacrifice.

⁶ I spread out my hands to you. My soul thirsts for you, like a parched land. Selah. ⁷ Hurry to answer me, Yahweh. My spirit fails. Don’t hide your face from me, so that I don’t become like those who go down into the pit. ⁸ Cause me to hear your loving kindness in the morning, for I trust in you. Cause me to know the way in which I should walk, for I lift up my soul to you.

⁸ Even so, affectionately longing for you, we were well pleased to impart to you, not the Good News of God only, but also our own souls, because you had become very dear to us.

⁴ and also for the innocent blood that he shed; for he filled Jerusalem with innocent blood, and Yahweh would not pardon.

²⁶ “Nevertheless they were disobedient, and rebelled against you, cast your law behind their back, killed your prophets that testified against them to turn them again to you, and they committed awful blasphemies.

²⁷ He sings before men, and says, ‘I have sinned, and perverted that which was right, and it didn’t profit me. ²⁸ He has redeemed my soul from going into the pit. My life will see the light.’

¹³ Only acknowledge your iniquity, that you have transgressed against Yahweh your God, and have scattered your ways to the strangers under every green tree, and you have not obeyed my voice,’ says Yahweh.”

⁷ “How can I pardon you? Your children have forsaken me, and sworn by what are no gods. When I had fed them to the full, they committed adultery, and assembled themselves in troops at the prostitutes’ houses. ⁸ They were as fed horses roaming at large. Everyone neighed after his neighbor’s wife. ⁹ Shouldn’t I punish them for these things?” says Yahweh. “Shouldn’t my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?

¹⁸ “Yahweh is righteous; for I have rebelled against his commandment. Please hear all you peoples, and see my sorrow. My virgins and my young men have gone into captivity.

¹⁶ The crown has fallen from our head. Woe to us, for we have sinned!

¹³ “‘“In your filthiness is lewdness. Because I have cleansed you and you weren’t cleansed, you won’t be cleansed from your filthiness any more, until I have caused my wrath toward you to rest.

⁵ we have sinned, and have dealt perversely, and have done wickedly, and have rebelled, even turning aside from your precepts and from your ordinances. ⁶ We haven’t listened to your servants the prophets, who spoke in your name to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, and to all the people of the land. ⁷ “Lord, righteousness belongs to you, but to us confusion of face, as it is today; to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to all Israel, who are near, and who are far off, through all the countries where you have driven them, because of their trespass that they have trespassed against you. ⁸ Lord, to us belongs confusion of face, to our kings, to our princes, and to our fathers, because we have sinned against you. ⁹ To the Lord our God belong mercies and forgiveness; for we have rebelled against him. ¹⁰ We haven’t obeyed Yahweh our God’s voice, to walk in his laws, which he set before us by his servants the prophets. ¹¹ Yes, all Israel have transgressed your law, turning aside, that they should not obey your voice. “Therefore the curse and the oath written in the law of Moses the servant of God has been poured out on us; for we have sinned against him. ¹² He has confirmed his words, which he spoke against us, and against our judges who judged us, by bringing on us a great evil; for under the whole sky, such has not been done as has been done to Jerusalem. ¹³ As it is written in the law of Moses, all this evil has come on us. Yet we have not entreated the favor of Yahweh our God, that we should turn from our iniquities and have discernment in your truth. ¹⁴ Therefore Yahweh has watched over the evil, and brought it on us; for Yahweh our God is righteous in all his works which he does, and we have not obeyed his voice.

⁵ Your fathers, where are they? And the prophets, do they live forever?

¹⁶ but they mocked the messengers of God, and despised his words, and scoffed at his prophets, until Yahweh’s wrath arose against his people, until there was no remedy. ¹⁷ Therefore he brought on them the king of the Chaldeans, who killed their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary, and had no compassion on young man or virgin, old man or gray-headed. He gave them all into his hand.

¹⁹ though you have crushed us in the haunt of jackals, and covered us with the shadow of death.

¹⁵ so pursue them with your tempest, and terrify them with your storm.

¹ How has the Lord covered the daughter of Zion with a cloud in his anger! He has cast the beauty of Israel down from heaven to the earth, and hasn’t remembered his footstool in the day of his anger. ² The Lord has swallowed up all the dwellings of Jacob without pity. He has thrown down in his wrath the strongholds of the daughter of Judah. He has brought them down to the ground. He has profaned the kingdom and its princes.

¹⁷ Yahweh has done that which he planned. He has fulfilled his word that he commanded in the days of old. He has thrown down, and has not pitied. He has caused the enemy to rejoice over you. He has exalted the horn of your adversaries.

²¹ “The youth and the old man lie on the ground in the streets. My virgins and my young men have fallen by the sword. You have killed them in the day of your anger. You have slaughtered, and not pitied.

⁶⁶ You will pursue them in anger, and destroy them from under the heavens of Yahweh.

⁹ My eye won’t spare, neither will I have pity. I will punish you according to your ways. Your abominations will be among you. Then you will know that I, Yahweh, strike.

¹⁸ Therefore I will also deal in wrath. My eye won’t spare, neither will I have pity. Though they cry in my ears with a loud voice, yet I will not hear them.”

¹⁰ As for me also, my eye won’t spare, neither will I have pity, but I will bring their way on their head.”

² Clouds and darkness are around him. Righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne.

¹¹ Yahweh said to me, “Don’t pray for this people for their good.

¹ Then Yahweh said to me, “Though Moses and Samuel stood before me, yet my mind would not turn toward this people. Cast them out of my sight, and let them go out!

⁸ Yes, when I cry, and call for help, he shuts out my prayer.

¹³ It has come to pass that, as he called, and they refused to listen, so they will call, and I will not listen,” said Yahweh of Armies;

¹³ Yahweh will make you the head, and not the tail. You will be above only, and you will not be beneath, if you listen to the commandments of Yahweh your God which I command you today, to observe and to do,

³⁷ You will become an astonishment, a proverb, and a byword among all the peoples where Yahweh will lead you away.

⁴⁴ He will lend to you, and you won’t lend to him. He will be the head, and you will be the tail.

¹⁵ All that pass by clap their hands at you. They hiss and wag their head at the daughter of Jerusalem, saying, “Is this the city that men called ‘The perfection of beauty, the joy of the whole earth’?”

¹⁴ I have become a derision to all my people, and their song all day long.

¹⁴ They wander as blind men in the streets. They are polluted with blood, So that men can’t touch their garments. ¹⁵ “Go away!” they cried to them. “Unclean! Go away! Go away! Don’t touch! When they fled away and wandered, men said among the nations, “They can’t live here any more.”

¹³ Being defamed, we entreat. We are made as the filth of the world, the dirt wiped off by all, even until now.

⁷ But against any of the children of Israel a dog won’t even bark or move its tongue, against man or animal, that you may know that Yahweh makes a distinction between the Egyptians and Israel.

⁹ “Now I have become their song. Yes, I am a byword to them. ¹⁰ They abhor me, they stand aloof from me, and don’t hesitate to spit in my face. ¹¹ For he has untied his cord, and afflicted me; and they have thrown off restraint before me.

⁶ But I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised by the people. ⁷ All those who see me mock me. They insult me with their lips. They shake their heads, saying, ⁸ “He trusts in Yahweh. Let him deliver him. Let him rescue him, since he delights in him.”

¹³ You make us a reproach to our neighbors, a scoffing and a derision to those who are around us. ¹⁴ You make us a byword among the nations, a shaking of the head among the peoples.

¹⁰ Why should the nations say, “Where is their God?” Let it be known among the nations, before our eyes, that vengeance for your servants’ blood is being poured out.

¹⁶ All your enemies have opened their mouth wide against you. They hiss and gnash their teeth. They say, “We have swallowed her up. Certainly this is the day that we looked for. We have found it. We have seen it.”

³⁸ Then there were two robbers crucified with him, one on his right hand and one on the left. ³⁹ Those who passed by blasphemed him, wagging their heads, ⁴⁰ and saying, “You who destroy the temple, and build it in three days, save yourself! If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross!” ⁴¹ Likewise the chief priests also mocking, with the scribes, the Pharisees, and the elders, said, ⁴² “He saved others, but he can’t save himself. If he is the King of Israel, let him come down from the cross now, and we will believe in him. ⁴³ He trusts in God. Let God deliver him now, if he wants him; for he said, ‘I am the Son of God.’” ⁴⁴ The robbers also who were crucified with him cast on him the same reproach. ⁴⁵ Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour.

¹⁷ Fear, the pit, and the snare, are on you who inhabit the earth. ¹⁸ It will happen that he who flees from the noise of the fear will fall into the pit; and he who comes up out of the middle of the pit will be taken in the snare; for the windows on high are opened, and the foundations of the earth tremble.

¹⁹ These two things have happened to you— who will grieve with you?— desolation and destruction, and famine and the sword. How can I comfort you?

⁴³ Terror, the pit, and the snare are on you, inhabitant of Moab,” says Yahweh. ⁴⁴ “He who flees from the terror will fall into the pit; and he who gets up out of the pit will be taken in the snare: for I will bring on him, even on Moab, the year of their visitation,” says Yahweh.

⁴ The roads to Zion mourn, because no one comes to the solemn assembly. All her gates are desolate. Her priests sigh. Her virgins are afflicted, and she herself is in bitterness.

¹ How has the Lord covered the daughter of Zion with a cloud in his anger! He has cast the beauty of Israel down from heaven to the earth, and hasn’t remembered his footstool in the day of his anger. ² The Lord has swallowed up all the dwellings of Jacob without pity. He has thrown down in his wrath the strongholds of the daughter of Judah. He has brought them down to the ground. He has profaned the kingdom and its princes. ³ He has cut off all the horn of Israel in fierce anger. He has drawn back his right hand from before the enemy. He has burned up Jacob like a flaming fire, which devours all around. ⁴ He has bent his bow like an enemy. He has stood with his right hand as an adversary. Has killed all that were pleasant to the eye. In the tent of the daughter of Zion, he has poured out his wrath like fire. ⁵ The Lord has become as an enemy. He has swallowed up Israel. He has swallowed up all her palaces. He has destroyed his strongholds. He has multiplied mourning and lamentation in the daughter of Judah. ⁶ He has violently taken away his tabernacle, as if it were a garden. He has destroyed his place of assembly. Yahweh has caused solemn assembly and Sabbath to be forgotten in Zion. In the indignation of his anger, he has despised the king and the priest. ⁷ The Lord has cast off his altar. He has abhorred his sanctuary. He has given the walls of her palaces into the hand of the enemy. They have made a noise in Yahweh’s house, as in the day of a solemn assembly. ⁸ Yahweh has purposed to destroy the wall of the daughter of Zion. He has stretched out the line. He has not withdrawn his hand from destroying; He has made the rampart and wall lament. They languish together. ⁹ Her gates have sunk into the ground. He has destroyed and broken her bars. Her king and her princes are among the nations where the law is not. Yes, her prophets find no vision from Yahweh.

³⁵ For it will come like a snare on all those who dwell on the surface of all the earth.

¹³⁶ Streams of tears run down my eyes, because they don’t observe your law.

¹⁹ My anguish, my anguish! I am pained at my very heart! My heart trembles within me. I can’t hold my peace, because you have heard, O my soul, the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war.

¹ Oh that my head were waters, and my eyes a spring of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people!

¹⁸ Let them make haste and take up a wailing for us, that our eyes may run down with tears and our eyelids gush out with waters.

¹⁷ But if you will not hear it, my soul will weep in secret for your pride. My eye will weep bitterly, and run down with tears, because Yahweh’s flock has been taken captive.

¹¹ My eyes fail with tears. My heart is troubled. My liver is poured on the earth, because of the destruction of the daughter of my people, because the young children and the infants swoon in the streets of the city.

¹⁸ Their heart cried to the Lord. O wall of the daughter of Zion, let tears run down like a river day and night. Give yourself no relief. Don’t let the your eyes rest.

¹ I tell the truth in Christ. I am not lying, my conscience testifying with me in the Holy Spirit ² that I have great sorrow and unceasing pain in my heart. ³ For I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brothers’ sake, my relatives according to the flesh

² In the day of my trouble I sought the Lord. My hand was stretched out in the night, and didn’t get tired. My soul refused to be comforted.

¹⁷ “You shall say this word to them: “‘Let my eyes run down with tears night and day, and let them not cease; for the virgin daughter of my people is broken with a great breach, with a very grievous wound.

¹⁴ Turn again, we beg you, God of Armies. Look down from heaven, and see, and visit this vine, ¹⁵ the stock which your right hand planted, the branch that you made strong for yourself. ¹⁶ It’s burned with fire. It’s cut down. They perish at your rebuke.

¹⁹ For he has looked down from the height of his sanctuary. From heaven, Yahweh saw the earth; ²⁰ to hear the groans of the prisoner; to free those who are condemned to death;

⁶ I have set watchmen on your walls, Jerusalem. They will never be silent day nor night. You who call on Yahweh, take no rest, ⁷ and give him no rest, until he establishes, and until he makes Jerusalem a praise in the earth.

¹⁵ Look down from heaven, and see from the habitation of your holiness and of your glory. Where are your zeal and your mighty acts? The yearning of your heart and your compassion is restrained toward me.

¹ Oh that you would tear the heavens, that you would come down, that the mountains might quake at your presence.

²⁰ “Look, Yahweh, and see to whom you have done thus! Should the women eat their offspring, the children that they held and bounced on their knees? Should the priest and the prophet be killed in the sanctuary of the Lord?

¹ Remember, Yahweh, what has come on us. Look, and see our reproach.

¹⁶ Lord, according to all your righteousness, let your anger and please let your wrath be turned away from your city Jerusalem, your holy mountain; because for our sins, and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and your people have become a reproach to all who are around us. ¹⁷ “Now therefore, our God, listen to the prayer of your servant, and to his petitions, and cause your face to shine on your sanctuary that is desolate, for the Lord’s sake. ¹⁸ My God, turn your ear, and hear. Open your eyes, and see our desolations, and the city which is called by your name; for we do not present our petitions before you for our righteousness, but for your great mercies’ sake. ¹⁹ Lord, hear. Lord, forgive. Lord, listen and do. Don’t defer, for your own sake, my God, because your city and your people are called by your name.”

³⁴ For how will I go up to my father, if the boy isn’t with me?—lest I see the evil that will come on my father.”

³ When David and his men came to the city, behold, it was burned with fire; and their wives, their sons, and their daughters were taken captive. ⁴ Then David and the people who were with him lifted up their voice and wept until they had no more power to weep.

¹⁹ My anguish, my anguish! I am pained at my very heart! My heart trembles within me. I can’t hold my peace, because you have heard, O my soul, the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war. ²⁰ Destruction on destruction is decreed, for the whole land is laid waste. Suddenly my tents are destroyed, and my curtains gone in a moment. ²¹ How long will I see the standard and hear the sound of the trumpet?

²² therefore Yahweh of Armies says, ‘Behold, I will punish them. The young men will die by the sword. Their sons and their daughters will die by famine.

¹⁶ The people to whom they prophesy will be cast out in the streets of Jerusalem because of the famine and the sword. They will have no one to bury them—them, their wives, their sons, or their daughters, for I will pour their wickedness on them.

¹⁸ If I go out into the field, then, behold, the slain with the sword! If I enter into the city, then, behold, those who are sick with famine! For both the prophet and the priest go about in the land, and have no knowledge.’”

⁹ I will cause them to eat the flesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters. They will each eat the flesh of his friend in the siege and in the distress, with which their enemies, and those who seek their life, will distress them.”’

¹¹ They ravished the women in Zion, the virgins in the cities of Judah.

⁴¹ When he came near, he saw the city and wept over it, ⁴² saying, “If you, even you, had known today the things which belong to your peace! But now, they are hidden from your eyes. ⁴³ For the days will come on you, when your enemies will throw up a barricade against you, surround you, hem you in on every side, ⁴⁴ and will dash you and your children within you to the ground. They will not leave in you one stone on another, because you didn’t know the time of your visitation.”

¹⁰ Behold, today your eyes have seen how Yahweh had delivered you today into my hand in the cave. Some urged me to kill you; but I spared you; and I said, I will not stretch out my hand against my lord; for he is Yahweh’s anointed. ¹¹ Moreover, my father, behold, yes, see the skirt of your robe in my hand; for in that I cut off the skirt of your robe, and didn’t kill you, know and see that there is neither evil nor disobedience in my hand, and I have not sinned against you, though you hunt for my life to take it. ¹² May Yahweh judge between me and you, and may Yahweh avenge me of you; but my hand will not be on you. ¹³ As the proverb of the ancients says, ‘Out of the wicked comes wickedness;’ but my hand will not be on you. ¹⁴ Against whom has the king of Israel come out? Whom do you pursue? A dead dog? A flea? ¹⁵ May Yahweh therefore be judge, and give sentence between me and you, and see, and plead my cause, and deliver me out of your hand.”

²⁸ Please forgive the trespass of your servant. For Yahweh will certainly make my lord a sure house, because my lord fights Yahweh’s battles. Evil will not be found in you all your days. ²⁹ Though men may rise up to pursue you, and to seek your soul, yet the soul of my lord will be bound in the bundle of life with Yahweh your God. He will sling out the souls of your enemies, as from the hollow of a sling.

¹⁸ He said, “Why does my lord pursue his servant? For what have I done? What evil is in my hand? ¹⁹ Now therefore, please let my lord the king hear the words of his servant. If it is so that Yahweh has stirred you up against me, let him accept an offering. But if it is the children of men, they are cursed before Yahweh; for they have driven me out today that I shouldn’t cling to Yahweh’s inheritance, saying, ‘Go, serve other gods!’ ²⁰ Now therefore, don’t let my blood fall to the earth away from the presence of Yahweh; for the king of Israel has come out to seek a flea, as when one hunts a partridge in the mountains.”

¹ For the Chief Musician. By David. In Yahweh, I take refuge. How can you say to my soul, “Flee as a bird to your mountain”?

⁷ For without cause they have hidden their net in a pit for me. Without cause they have dug a pit for my soul.

¹⁹ Don’t let those who are my enemies wrongfully rejoice over me; neither let those who hate me without a cause wink their eyes.

⁴ Those who hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of my head. Those who want to cut me off, being my enemies wrongfully, are mighty. I have to restore what I didn’t take away.

³ They have also surrounded me with words of hatred, and fought against me without a cause.

¹⁶¹ SIN AND SHIN Princes have persecuted me without a cause, but my heart stands in awe of your words.

¹⁵ The princes were angry with Jeremiah, and struck him, and put him in prison in the house of Jonathan the scribe; for they had made that the prison. ¹⁶ When Jeremiah had come into the dungeon house, and into the cells, and Jeremiah had remained there many days,

¹⁸ Moreover Jeremiah said to king Zedekiah, “How have I sinned against you, against your servants, or against this people, that you have put me in prison?

⁴ Then the princes said to the king, “Please let this man be put to death; because he weakens the hands of the men of war who remain in this city, and the hands of all the people, in speaking such words to them: for this man doesn’t seek the welfare of this people, but harm.” ⁵ Zedekiah the king said, “Behold, he is in your hand; for the king can’t do anything to oppose you.” ⁶ Then they took Jeremiah and threw him into the dungeon of Malchijah the king’s son, that was in the court of the guard. They let down Jeremiah with cords. In the dungeon there was no water, but mire; and Jeremiah sank in the mire.

²⁵ But this happened so that the word may be fulfilled which was written in their law, ‘They hated me without a cause.’

¹⁶ When Jeremiah had come into the dungeon house, and into the cells, and Jeremiah had remained there many days,

²⁰ Now please hear, my lord the king: please let my supplication be presented before you, that you not cause me to return to the house of Jonathan the scribe, lest I die there.”

⁹ “My lord the king, these men have done evil in all that they have done to Jeremiah the prophet, whom they have cast into the dungeon. He is likely to die in the place where he is, because of the famine; for there is no more bread in the city.”

¹⁷ A stone was brought, and laid on the mouth of the den; and the king sealed it with his own signet, and with the signet of his lords; that nothing might be changed concerning Daniel.

⁶⁰ and laid it in his own new tomb, which he had cut out in the rock, and he rolled a great stone against the door of the tomb, and departed.

⁶⁶ So they went with the guard and made the tomb secure, sealing the stone.

¹¹ My days are past. My plans are broken off, as are the thoughts of my heart. ¹² They change the night into day, saying ‘The light is near’ in the presence of darkness. ¹³ If I look for Sheol as my house, if I have spread my couch in the darkness, ¹⁴ if I have said to corruption, ‘You are my father;’ to the worm, ‘My mother,’ and ‘My sister,’ ¹⁵ where then is my hope? As for my hope, who will see it? ¹⁶ Shall it go down with me to the gates of Sheol, or descend together into the dust?”

⁴ The cords of death surrounded me. The floods of ungodliness made me afraid.

¹ For the Chief Musician. To the tune of “Lilies.” By David. Save me, God, for the waters have come up to my neck! ² I sink in deep mire, where there is no foothold. I have come into deep waters, where the floods overflow me.

¹⁵ Don’t let the flood waters overwhelm me, neither let the deep swallow me up. Don’t let the pit shut its mouth on me.

⁴ then the waters would have overwhelmed us, the stream would have gone over our soul; ⁵ then the proud waters would have gone over our soul.

¹⁰ I said, “In the middle of my life I go into the gates of Sheol. I am deprived of the residue of my years.” ¹¹ I said, “I won’t see Yah, Yah in the land of the living. I will see man no more with the inhabitants of the world. ¹² My dwelling is removed, and is carried away from me like a shepherd’s tent. I have rolled up my life like a weaver. He will cut me off from the loom. From day even to night you will make an end of me. ¹³ I waited patiently until morning. He breaks all my bones like a lion. From day even to night you will make an end of me.

¹⁸ I said, “My strength has perished, along with my expectation from Yahweh.”

³ For you threw me into the depths, in the heart of the seas. The flood was all around me. All your waves and your billows passed over me. ⁴ I said, ‘I have been banished from your sight; yet I will look again toward your holy temple.’ ⁵ The waters surrounded me, even to the soul. The deep was around me. The weeds were wrapped around my head.

⁸ For we don’t desire to have you uninformed, brothers, concerning our affliction which happened to us in Asia, that we were weighed down exceedingly, beyond our power, so much that we despaired even of life. ⁹ Yes, we ourselves have had the sentence of death within ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead, ¹⁰ who delivered us out of so great a death, and does deliver; on whom we have set our hope that he will also still deliver us;

¹¹ Therefore Yahweh brought on them the captains of the army of the king of Assyria, who took Manasseh in chains, bound him with fetters, and carried him to Babylon. ¹² When he was in distress, he begged Yahweh his God, and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers.

⁵ The cords of Sheol were around me. The snares of death came on me. ⁶ In my distress I called on Yahweh, and cried to my God. He heard my voice out of his temple. My cry before him came into his ears.

¹ For the Chief Musician. A Psalm by David. I waited patiently for Yahweh. He turned to me, and heard my cry. ² He brought me up also out of a horrible pit, out of the miry clay. He set my feet on a rock, and gave me a firm place to stand.

¹³ But as for me, my prayer is to you, Yahweh, in an acceptable time. God, in the abundance of your loving kindness, answer me in the truth of your salvation. ¹⁴ Deliver me out of the mire, and don’t let me sink. Let me be delivered from those who hate me, and out of the deep waters. ¹⁵ Don’t let the flood waters overwhelm me, neither let the deep swallow me up. Don’t let the pit shut its mouth on me. ¹⁶ Answer me, Yahweh, for your loving kindness is good. According to the multitude of your tender mercies, turn to me. ¹⁷ Don’t hide your face from your servant, for I am in distress. Answer me speedily! ¹⁸ Draw near to my soul and redeem it. Ransom me because of my enemies.

³ The cords of death surrounded me, the pains of Sheol got a hold of me. I found trouble and sorrow. ⁴ Then I called on Yahweh’s name: “Yahweh, I beg you, deliver my soul.”

¹ A Song of Ascents. Out of the depths I have cried to you, Yahweh. ² Lord, hear my voice. Let your ears be attentive to the voice of my petitions.

³ When my spirit was overwhelmed within me, you knew my route. On the path in which I walk, they have hidden a snare for me. ⁴ Look on my right, and see; for there is no one who is concerned for me. Refuge has fled from me. No one cares for my soul. ⁵ I cried to you, Yahweh. I said, “You are my refuge, my portion in the land of the living.” ⁶ Listen to my cry, for I am in desperate need. Deliver me from my persecutors, for they are too strong for me. ⁷ Bring my soul out of prison, that I may give thanks to your name. The righteous will surround me, for you will be good to me.

² He said, “I called because of my affliction to Yahweh. He answered me. Out of the belly of Sheol I cried. You heard my voice.

²⁴ who, having received such a command, threw them into the inner prison, and secured their feet in the stocks. ²⁵ But about midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them. ²⁶ Suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened, and everyone’s bonds were loosened. ²⁷ The jailer, being roused out of sleep and seeing the prison doors open, drew his sword and was about to kill himself, supposing that the prisoners had escaped. ²⁸ But Paul cried with a loud voice, saying, “Don’t harm yourself, for we are all here!”

¹³ He prayed to him; and he was entreated by him, and heard his supplication, and brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that Yahweh was God.

¹⁹ His prayer also, and how God was entreated of him, and all his sin and his trespass, and the places in which he built high places, and set up the Asherah poles and the engraved images, before he humbled himself: behold, they are written in the history of Hozai.

²⁸ so that they caused the cry of the poor to come to him. He heard the cry of the afflicted.

⁴ I cry to Yahweh with my voice, and he answers me out of his holy hill. Selah.

⁸ Depart from me, all you workers of iniquity, for Yahweh has heard the voice of my weeping. ⁹ Yahweh has heard my supplication. Yahweh accepts my prayer.

⁶ This poor man cried, and Yahweh heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles.

¹ For the Chief Musician. On stringed instruments. A contemplation by David. Listen to my prayer, God. Don’t hide yourself from my supplication.

¹⁹ But most certainly, God has listened. He has heard the voice of my prayer.

¹³ But to you, Yahweh, I have cried. In the morning, my prayer comes before you. ¹⁴ Yahweh, why do you reject my soul? Why do you hide your face from me?

¹ I love Yahweh, because he listens to my voice, and my cries for mercy. ² Because he has turned his ear to me, therefore I will call on him as long as I live.

⁵ “Go, and tell Hezekiah, ‘Yahweh, the God of David your father, says, “I have heard your prayer. I have seen your tears. Behold, I will add fifteen years to your life.

²⁶ In the same way, the Spirit also helps our weaknesses, for we don’t know how to pray as we ought. But the Spirit himself makes intercession for us with groanings which can’t be uttered.

¹⁸ Draw near to my soul and redeem it. Ransom me because of my enemies.

¹⁸ Yahweh is near to all those who call on him, to all who call on him in truth.

¹⁰ Don’t you be afraid, for I am with you. Don’t be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you. Yes, I will help you. Yes, I will uphold you with the right hand of my righteousness.

¹⁴ Don’t be afraid, you worm Jacob, and you men of Israel. I will help you,” says Yahweh. “Your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel.

¹ But now Yahweh who created you, Jacob, and he who formed you, Israel, says: “Don’t be afraid, for I have redeemed you. I have called you by your name. You are mine. ² When you pass through the waters, I will be with you, and through the rivers, they will not overflow you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned, and flame will not scorch you.

⁹ Then you will call, and Yahweh will answer. You will cry for help, and he will say, ‘Here I am.’ “If you take away from among you the yoke, finger pointing, and speaking wickedly;

¹⁷ “You therefore put your belt on your waist, arise, and say to them all that I command you. Don’t be dismayed at them, lest I dismay you before them.

⁹ The Lord said to Paul in the night by a vision, “Don’t be afraid, but speak and don’t be silent;

²⁴ saying, ‘Don’t be afraid, Paul. You must stand before Caesar. Behold, God has granted you all those who sail with you.’

⁸ Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners. Purify your hearts, you double-minded.

¹⁷ When I saw him, I fell at his feet like a dead man. He laid his right hand on me, saying, “Don’t be afraid. I am the first and the last,

¹⁰ Don’t be afraid of the things which you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested; and you will have oppression for ten days. Be faithful to death, and I will give you the crown of life.

¹⁶ the angel who has redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads, and let my name be named on them, and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac. Let them grow into a multitude upon the earth.”

³⁹ When David heard that Nabal was dead, he said, “Blessed is Yahweh, who has pleaded the cause of my reproach from the hand of Nabal, and has kept back his servant from evil. Yahweh has returned the evildoing of Nabal on his own head.” David sent and spoke concerning Abigail, to take her to himself as wife.

²² Yahweh redeems the soul of his servants. None of those who take refuge in him shall be condemned.

²³ My lips shall shout for joy! My soul, which you have redeemed, sings praises to you!

⁴ who redeems your life from destruction, who crowns you with loving kindness and tender mercies,

³⁴ Their Redeemer is strong: Yahweh of Armies is his name. He will thoroughly plead their cause, that he may give rest to the earth, and disquiet the inhabitants of Babylon.

³⁶ Therefore Yahweh says: “Behold, I will plead your cause, and take vengeance for you. I will dry up her sea, and make her fountain dry.

⁴² Unless the God of my father, the God of Abraham, and the fear of Isaac, had been with me, surely now you would have sent me away empty. God has seen my affliction and the labor of my hands, and rebuked you last night.”

⁴ For you have maintained my just cause. You sit on the throne judging righteously.

¹ By David. Judge me, Yahweh, for I have walked in my integrity. I have trusted also in Yahweh without wavering.

¹ By David. Contend, Yahweh, with those who contend with me. Fight against those who fight against me.

²³ Wake up! Rise up to defend me, my God! My Lord, contend for me!

¹ Vindicate me, God, and plead my cause against an ungodly nation. Oh, deliver me from deceitful and wicked men.

¹⁹ But I was like a gentle lamb that is led to the slaughter. I didn’t know that they had devised plans against me, saying, “Let’s destroy the tree with its fruit, and let’s cut him off from the land of the living, that his name may be no more remembered.” ²⁰ But, Yahweh of Armies, who judges righteously, who tests the heart and the mind, I will see your vengeance on them; for to you I have revealed my cause. ²¹ “Therefore Yahweh says concerning the men of Anathoth, who seek your life, saying, ‘You shall not prophesy in Yahweh’s name, that you not die by our hand;’

¹⁰ Woe is me, my mother, that you have borne me, a man of strife, and a man of contention to the whole earth! I have not lent, neither have men lent to me; yet every one of them curses me.

¹⁸ Then they said, “Come! Let’s devise plans against Jeremiah; for the law won’t perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet. Come, and let’s strike him with the tongue, and let’s not give heed to any of his words.” ¹⁹ Give heed to me, Yahweh, and listen to the voice of those who contend with me. ²⁰ Should evil be recompensed for good? For they have dug a pit for my soul. Remember how I stood before you to speak good for them, to turn away your wrath from them. ²¹ Therefore deliver up their children to the famine, and give them over to the power of the sword. Let their wives become childless and widows. Let their men be killed and their young men struck by the sword in battle. ²² Let a cry be heard from their houses when you bring a troop suddenly on them; for they have dug a pit to take me and hidden snares for my feet. ²³ Yet, Yahweh, you know all their counsel against me to kill me. Don’t forgive their iniquity. Don’t blot out their sin from your sight, Let them be overthrown before you. Deal with them in the time of your anger.

⁷ Yahweh, you have persuaded me, and I was persuaded. You are stronger than I, and have prevailed. I have become a laughingstock all day. Everyone mocks me. ⁸ For as often as I speak, I cry out; I cry, “Violence and destruction!” because Yahweh’s word has been made a reproach to me, and a derision, all day. ⁹ If I say, I will not make mention of him, or speak any more in his name, then there is in my heart as it were a burning fire shut up in my bones. I am weary with holding it in. I can’t. ¹⁰ For I have heard the defaming of many, “Terror on every side! Denounce, and we will denounce him!” say all my familiar friends, those who watch for my fall. “Perhaps he will be persuaded, and we will prevail against him, and we will take our revenge on him.”

¹ Zedekiah the son of Josiah reigned as king, instead of Coniah the son of Jehoiakim, whom Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon made king in the land of Judah. ² But neither he, nor his servants, nor the people of the land, listened to Yahweh’s words, which he spoke by the prophet Jeremiah. ³ Zedekiah the king sent Jehucal the son of Shelemiah, and Zephaniah the son of Maaseiah, the priest, to the prophet Jeremiah, saying, “Pray now to Yahweh our God for us.” ⁴ Now Jeremiah came in and went out among the people; for they had not put him into prison. ⁵ Pharaoh’s army had come out of Egypt; and when the Chaldeans who were besieging Jerusalem heard news of them, they broke up from Jerusalem. ⁶ Then Yahweh’s word came to the prophet Jeremiah, saying, ⁷ “Yahweh, the God of Israel, says, ‘You shall tell the king of Judah, who sent you to me to inquire of me: “Behold, Pharaoh’s army, which has come out to help you, will return to Egypt into their own land. ⁸ The Chaldeans will come again, and fight against this city. They will take it and burn it with fire.”’ ⁹ “Yahweh says, ‘Don’t deceive yourselves, saying, “The Chaldeans will surely depart from us;” for they will not depart. ¹⁰ For though you had struck the whole army of the Chaldeans who fight against you, and only wounded men remained among them, they would each rise up in his tent and burn this city with fire.’” ¹¹ When the army of the Chaldeans had broken up from Jerusalem for fear of Pharaoh’s army, ¹² then Jeremiah went out of Jerusalem to go into the land of Benjamin, to receive his portion there, in the middle of the people. ¹³ When he was in Benjamin’s gate, a captain of the guard was there, whose name was Irijah, the son of Shelemiah, the son of Hananiah; and he seized Jeremiah the prophet, saying, “You are defecting to the Chaldeans!” ¹⁴ Then Jeremiah said, “That is false! I am not defecting to the Chaldeans.” But he didn’t listen to him; so Irijah seized Jeremiah, and brought him to the princes. ¹⁵ The princes were angry with Jeremiah, and struck him, and put him in prison in the house of Jonathan the scribe; for they had made that the prison. ¹⁶ When Jeremiah had come into the dungeon house, and into the cells, and Jeremiah had remained there many days, ¹⁷ then Zedekiah the king sent, and had him brought out. The king asked him secretly in his house, “Is there any word from Yahweh?” Jeremiah said, “There is.” He also said, “You will be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon.” ¹⁸ Moreover Jeremiah said to king Zedekiah, “How have I sinned against you, against your servants, or against this people, that you have put me in prison? ¹⁹ Now where are your prophets who prophesied to you, saying, ‘The king of Babylon will not come against you, nor against this land?’ ²⁰ Now please hear, my lord the king: please let my supplication be presented before you, that you not cause me to return to the house of Jonathan the scribe, lest I die there.” ²¹ Then Zedekiah the king commanded, and they committed Jeremiah into the court of the guard. They gave him daily a loaf of bread out of the bakers’ street, until all the bread in the city was gone. Thus Jeremiah remained in the court of the guard.

²³ When he was cursed, he didn’t curse back. When he suffered, he didn’t threaten, but committed himself to him who judges righteously.

¹⁴ But you do see trouble and grief. You consider it to take it into your hand. You help the victim and the fatherless.

¹⁹ But I was like a gentle lamb that is led to the slaughter. I didn’t know that they had devised plans against me, saying, “Let’s destroy the tree with its fruit, and let’s cut him off from the land of the living, that his name may be no more remembered.” ²⁰ But, Yahweh of Armies, who judges righteously, who tests the heart and the mind, I will see your vengeance on them; for to you I have revealed my cause.

⁵⁹ Yahweh, you have seen my wrong. Judge my cause.

¹⁸ Remember this, that the enemy has mocked you, Yahweh. Foolish people have blasphemed your name.

³⁰ Let him give his cheek to him who strikes him. Let him be filled full of reproach.

⁸ I have heard the reproach of Moab, and the insults of the children of Ammon, with which they have reproached my people, and magnified themselves against their border.

⁷ Behold, they spew with their mouth. Swords are in their lips, “For”, they say, “who hears us?”

¹² For the sin of their mouth, and the words of their lips, let them be caught in their pride, for the curses and lies which they utter.

³ They have sharpened their tongues like a serpent. Viper’s poison is under their lips. Selah.

¹⁸ Then they said, “Come! Let’s devise plans against Jeremiah; for the law won’t perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet. Come, and let’s strike him with the tongue, and let’s not give heed to any of his words.”

³ therefore prophesy, and say, ‘The Lord Yahweh says: “Because, even because they have made you desolate, and swallowed you up on every side, that you might be a possession to the residue of the nations, and you are taken up in the lips of talkers, and the evil report of the people;”

⁹ “Now I have become their song. Yes, I am a byword to them.

² You know my sitting down and my rising up. You perceive my thoughts from afar.

⁴ Give them according to their work, and according to the wickedness of their doings. Give them according to the operation of their hands. Bring back on them what they deserve.

²⁰ But, Yahweh of Armies, who judges righteously, who tests the heart and the mind, I will see your vengeance on them; for to you I have revealed my cause.

²⁹ “Call together the archers against Babylon, all those who bend the bow. Encamp against her all around. Let none of it escape. Pay her back according to her work. According to all that she has done, do to her; for she has been proud against Yahweh, against the Holy One of Israel.

¹⁴ Alexander, the coppersmith, did much evil to me. The Lord will repay him according to his deeds,

¹⁰ They cried with a loud voice, saying, “How long, Master, the holy and true, until you judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?”

⁶ Return to her just as she returned, and repay her double as she did, and according to her works. In the cup which she mixed, mix to her double.

³⁰ But Sihon king of Heshbon would not let us pass by him; for Yahweh your God hardened his spirit and made his heart obstinate, that he might deliver him into your hand, as it is today.

¹⁵ ‘Cursed is the man who makes an engraved or molten image, an abomination to Yahweh, the work of the hands of the craftsman, and sets it up in secret.’ All the people shall answer and say, ‘Amen.’ ¹⁶ ‘Cursed is he who dishonors his father or his mother.’ All the people shall say, ‘Amen.’ ¹⁷ ‘Cursed is he who removes his neighbor’s landmark.’ All the people shall say, ‘Amen.’ ¹⁸ ‘Cursed is he who leads the blind astray on the road.’ All the people shall say, ‘Amen.’ ¹⁹ ‘Cursed is he who withholds justice from the foreigner, fatherless, and widow.’ All the people shall say, ‘Amen.’ ²⁰ ‘Cursed is he who lies with his father’s wife, because he dishonors his father’s bed.’ All the people shall say, ‘Amen.’ ²¹ ‘Cursed is he who lies with any kind of animal.’ All the people shall say, ‘Amen.’ ²² ‘Cursed is he who lies with his sister, his father’s daughter or his mother’s daughter.’ All the people shall say, ‘Amen.’ ²³ ‘Cursed is he who lies with his mother-in-law.’ All the people shall say, ‘Amen.’ ²⁴ ‘Cursed is he who secretly kills his neighbor.’ All the people shall say, ‘Amen.’ ²⁵ ‘Cursed is he who takes a bribe to kill an innocent person.’ All the people shall say, ‘Amen.’ ²⁶ ‘Cursed is he who doesn’t uphold the words of this law by doing them.’ All the people shall say, ‘Amen.’”

¹⁷ Yes, he loved cursing, and it came to him. He didn’t delight in blessing, and it was far from him. ¹⁸ He clothed himself also with cursing as with his garment. It came into his inward parts like water, like oil into his bones.

¹⁰ Make the heart of this people fat. Make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their heart, and turn again, and be healed.”

²² If any man doesn’t love the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be cursed. Come, Lord!

²⁴ He will deliver their kings into your hand, and you shall make their name perish from under the sky. No one will be able to stand before you until you have destroyed them.

¹⁹ Therefore it shall be, when Yahweh your God has given you rest from all your enemies all around, in the land which Yahweh your God gives you for an inheritance to possess it, that you shall blot out the memory of Amalek from under the sky. You shall not forget.

²⁷ Yahweh didn’t say that he would blot out the name of Israel from under the sky; but he saved them by the hand of Jeroboam the son of Joash.

³ When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have ordained;

⁶ Let their way be dark and slippery, Yahweh’s angel pursuing them.

¹⁵ If I had said, “I will speak thus”; behold, I would have betrayed the generation of your children.

¹⁶ The heavens are Yahweh’s heavens, but he has given the earth to the children of men.

¹ Yahweh says, “Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. What kind of house will you build to me? Where will I rest?

¹¹ “You shall say this to them: ‘The gods that have not made the heavens and the earth will perish from the earth, and from under the heavens.’”

⁴³ “You have covered us with anger and pursued us. You have killed. You have not pitied.