Line-By-Line Order:
Verse-Reference
Reference-Verse
Separate Line
Verse Only
Reference Only
|
Reference Delimiters:
None — Jhn 1:1 KJV
Square — [Jhn 1:1 KJV]
Curly — {Jhn 1:1 KJV}
Parens — (Jhn 1:1 KJV)
|
Paragraph Order:
Verse-Reference
Reference-Verse
Reference-Only
|
Number Delimiters:*
No Number
No Delimiter — 15
Square — [15]
Curly — {15}
Parens — (15)
|
Other Options:
Abbreviate Books
Use SBL Abbrev.
En dash not Hyphen
|
Quotes Around Verses
Remove Square Brackets |
Select All Verses |
Clear All Verses |
* 'Number Delimiters' only apply to 'Paragraph Order'
* 'Remove Square Brackets' does not apply to the Amplified Bible
God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it. Rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, and every creature that crawls on the earth.”
So the LORD God caused a deep sleep to come over the man, and he slept. God took one of his ribs and closed the flesh at that place.
And the man said:
This one, at last, is bone of my bone
and flesh of my flesh;
this one will be called “woman,”
for she was taken from man.
The woman saw that the tree was good for food and delightful to look at, and that it was desirable for obtaining wisdom. So she took some of its fruit and ate it; she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.
I will put hostility between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and her offspring.[fn]
He will strike your head,
and you will strike his heel.
“So now you are cursed, alienated from the ground that opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood you have shed.[fn]
“If you work the ground, it will never again give you its yield. You will be a restless wanderer on the earth.”
“This is how you are to make it: The ark will be 450 feet long, 75 feet wide, and 45 feet high.[fn]
but the dove found no resting place for its foot. It returned to him in the ark because water covered the surface of the whole earth. He reached out and brought it into the ark to himself.
When the dove came to him at evening, there was a plucked olive leaf in its beak. So Noah knew that the water on the earth's surface had gone down.
God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.
Abram passed through the land to the site of Shechem, at the oak of Moreh. (At that time the Canaanites were in the land.)
“Get up and walk around the land, through its length and width, for I will give it to you.”
Sarai said to Abram, “Since the LORD has prevented me from bearing children, go to my slave; perhaps through her I can build a family.” And Abram agreed to what Sarai said.
So Abram's wife, Sarai, took Hagar, her Egyptian slave, and gave her to her husband, Abram, as a wife for him. This happened after Abram had lived in the land of Canaan ten years.
He slept with[fn] Hagar, and she became pregnant. When she saw that she was pregnant, her mistress became contemptible to her.
Abram replied to Sarai, “Here, your slave is in your power; do whatever you want with her.” Then Sarai mistreated her so much that she ran away from her.
The angel of the LORD said to her, “Go back to your mistress and submit to her authority.”
“If any male is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin, that man will be cut off from his people; he has broken my covenant.”
God said to Abraham, “As for your wife Sarai, do not call her Sarai, for Sarah[fn] will be her name.
“I will bless her; indeed, I will give you a son by her. I will bless her, and she will produce nations; kings of peoples will come from her.”
So they got their father to drink wine that night, and the firstborn came and slept with her father; he did not know when she lay down or when she got up.
That night they again got their father to drink wine, and the younger went and slept with him; he did not know when she lay down or when she got up.
Now Abimelech had not approached her, so he said, “Lord, would you destroy a nation even though it is innocent?
Then God said to him in the dream, “Yes, I know that you did this with a clear conscience.[fn] I have also kept you from sinning against me. Therefore I have not let you touch her.
So she said to Abraham, “Drive out this slave with her son, for the son of this slave will not be a coheir with my son Isaac! ”
But God said to Abraham, “Do not be distressed[fn] about the boy and about your slave. Whatever Sarah says to you, listen to her, because your offspring will be traced through Isaac,
Then God opened her eyes, and she saw a well. So she went and filled the waterskin and gave the boy a drink.
Before he had finished speaking, there was Rebekah — daughter of Bethuel son of Milcah, the wife of Abraham's brother Nahor — coming with a jug on her shoulder.
Then the servant ran to meet her and said, “Please let me have a little water from your jug.”
She replied, “Drink, my lord.” She quickly lowered her jug to her hand and gave him a drink.
As the camels finished drinking, the man took a gold ring weighing half a shekel, and for her wrists two bracelets weighing ten shekels of gold.
“She quickly lowered her jug from her shoulder and said, ‘Drink, and I'll water your camels also.' So I drank, and she also watered the camels.
“Then I asked her, ‘Whose daughter are you? ' She responded, ‘The daughter of Bethuel son of Nahor, whom Milcah bore to him.' So I put the ring on her nose and the bracelets on her wrists.
Then he brought out objects of silver and gold, and garments, and gave them to Rebekah. He also gave precious gifts to her brother and her mother.
But her brother and mother said, “Let the girl stay with us for about ten days. Then she[fn] can go.”
So they sent away their sister Rebekah with the one who had nursed and raised her,[fn] and Abraham's servant and his men.
Then Rebekah and her female servants got up, mounted the camels, and followed the man. So the servant took Rebekah and left.
Rebekah said to her son Jacob, “Listen! I heard your father talking with your brother Esau. He said,
Then Rebekah took the best clothes of her older son Esau, which were in the house, and had her younger son Jacob wear them.
When the words of her older son Esau were reported to Rebekah, she summoned her younger son Jacob and said to him, “Listen, your brother Esau is consoling himself by planning to kill you.
And he dreamed: A stairway was set on the ground with its top reaching the sky, and God's angels were going up and down on it.
The LORD was standing there beside him,[fn] saying, “I am the LORD, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your offspring the land on which you are lying.
Early in the morning Jacob took the stone that was near his head and set it up as a marker. He poured oil on top of it
While he was still speaking with them, Rachel came with her father's sheep, for she was a shepherdess.
He told Rachel that he was her father's relative, Rebekah's son. She ran and told her father.
When the LORD saw that Leah was neglected, he opened her womb; but Rachel was unable to conceive.
When Rachel saw that she was not bearing Jacob any children, she envied her sister. “Give me sons, or I will die! ” she said to Jacob.
Then she said, “Here is my maid Bilhah. Go sleep with her, and she'll bear children for me[fn] so that through her I too can build a family.”
When Leah saw that she had stopped having children, she took her slave Zilpah and gave her to Jacob as a wife.
When Jacob came in from the field that evening, Leah went out to meet him and said, “You must come with me, for I have hired you with my son's mandrakes.” So Jacob slept with her that night.
She said to her father, “Don't be angry, my lord, that I cannot stand up in your presence; I am having my period.” So Laban searched, but could not find the household idols.
He put the slaves and their children first, Leah and her children next, and Rachel and Joseph last.
Leah and her children also approached and bowed down, and then Joseph and Rachel approached and bowed down.
When Shechem — son of Hamor the Hivite, who was the region's chieftain — saw her, he took her and raped her.
“Live with us. The land is before you. Settle here, move about, and acquire property in it.”
Then Shechem said to Dinah's father and brothers, “Grant me this favor,[fn] and I'll give you whatever you say.
Then Judah said to his daughter-in-law Tamar, “Remain a widow in your father's house until my son Shelah grows up.” For he thought, “He might die too, like his brothers.” So Tamar went to live in her father's house.
As she was being brought out, she sent her father-in-law this message: “I am pregnant by the man to whom these items belong.” And she added, “Examine them. Whose signet ring, cord, and staff are these? ”
After some time his master's wife looked longingly at Joseph and said, “Sleep with me.”
She grabbed him by his garment and said, “Sleep with me! ” But leaving his garment in her hand, he escaped and ran outside.
When morning came, he was troubled, so he summoned all the magicians of Egypt and all its wise men. Pharaoh told them his dreams, but no one could interpret them for him.
Joseph gathered all the excess food in the land of Egypt during the seven years and put it in the cities. He put the food in every city from the fields around it.
“At harvest, you are to give a fifth of it to Pharaoh, and four-fifths will be yours as seed for the field and as food for yourselves, your households, and your dependents.”
Israel settled in the land of Egypt, in the region of Goshen. They acquired property in it and became fruitful and very numerous.
Pharaoh's daughter went down to bathe at the Nile while her servant girls walked along the riverbank. She saw the basket among the reeds, sent her slave girl, took it,
“Each woman will ask her neighbor and any woman staying in her house for silver and gold jewelry, and clothing, and you will put them on your sons and daughters. So you will plunder the Egyptians.”
So Zipporah took a flint, cut off her son's foreskin, threw it at Moses's feet, and said, “You are a bridegroom of blood to me! ”
“I also established my covenant with them to give them the land of Canaan, the land they lived in as aliens.
“But on that day I will give special treatment to the land of Goshen, where my people are living; no flies will be there. This way you will know that I, the LORD, am in the land.
The hail, with lightning flashing through it, was so severe that nothing like it had occurred in the land of Egypt since it had become a nation.
The locusts went up over the entire land of Egypt and settled on the whole territory of Egypt. Never before had there been such a large number of locusts, and there never will be again.
Then the prophetess Miriam, Aaron's sister, took a tambourine in her hand, and all the women came out following her with tambourines and dancing.
“I am going to stand there in front of you on the rock at Horeb; when you hit the rock, water will come out of it and the people will drink.” Moses did this in the sight of the elders of Israel.
Now Jethro, Moses's father-in-law, had taken in Zipporah, Moses's wife, after he had sent her back,
“If she is displeasing to her master, who chose her for himself, then he must let her be redeemed. He has no right to sell her to foreigners because he has acted treacherously toward her.
“If he takes an additional wife, he must not reduce the food, clothing, or marital rights of the first wife.
“When men get in a fight and hit a pregnant woman so that her children are born prematurely but there is no injury, the one who hit her must be fined as the woman's husband demands from him, and he must pay according to judicial assessment.
“If a man seduces a virgin who is not engaged, and he sleeps with her, he must certainly pay the bridal price for her to be his wife.
“If her father absolutely refuses to give her to him, he must pay an amount in silver equal to the bridal price for virgins.
“You must make it according to all that I show you — the pattern of the tabernacle as well as the pattern of all its furnishings.
“Make four gold rings for it, and attach the rings to the four corners at its four legs.
“You are also to make its plates and cups, as well as its pitchers and bowls for pouring drink offerings. Make them out of pure gold.
“You are to make a lampstand out of pure, hammered gold. It is to be made of one piece: its base and shaft, its ornamental cups, and its buds[fn] and petals.
“Six branches are to extend from its sides, three branches of the lampstand from one side and three branches of the lampstand from the other side.
“There are to be four cups shaped like almond blossoms on the lampstand shaft along with its buds and petals.
“For the six branches that extend from the lampstand, a bud must be under the first pair of branches from it, a bud under the second pair of branches from it, and a bud under the third pair of branches from it.
“Their buds and branches are to be of one piece.[fn] All of it is to be a single hammered piece of pure gold.
“Make its seven lamps, and set them up so that they illuminate the area in front of it.
“the table with all its utensils, the lampstand with its utensils, the altar of incense,
“the tent of meeting, the ark of the testimony, the mercy seat that is on top of it, and all the other furnishings of the tent —
“the table with its utensils, the pure gold lampstand with all its utensils, the altar of incense,
“the lampstand for light with its utensils and lamps as well as the oil for the light;
“the hangings of the courtyard, its posts and bases, and the screen for the gate of the courtyard;
Everyone whose heart was moved and whose spirit prompted him came and brought an offering to the LORD for the work on the tent of meeting, for all its services, and for the holy garments.
Six branches extended from its sides, three branches of the lampstand from one side and three branches of the lampstand from the other side.
There were three cups shaped like almond blossoms, each with a bud and petals, on one branch, and three cups shaped like almond blossoms, each with a bud and petals, on the next branch. It was this way for the six branches that extended from the lampstand.
They brought the tabernacle to Moses: the tent with all its furnishings, its clasps, its supports, its crossbars, and its pillars and bases;
the pure gold lampstand, with its lamps arranged and all its utensils, as well as the oil for the light;
“Then bring in the table and lay out its arrangement; also bring in the lampstand and set up its lamps.
“Assemble the surrounding courtyard and hang the screen for the gate of the courtyard.
“Take the anointing oil and anoint the tabernacle and everything in it; consecrate it along with all its furnishings so that it will be holy.
Then he spread the tent over the tabernacle and put the covering of the tent on top of it, just as the LORD had commanded Moses.
For the cloud of the LORD was over the tabernacle by day, and there was a fire inside the cloud by night, visible to the entire house of Israel throughout all the stages of their journey.
“and bring it to Aaron's sons the priests. The priest will take a handful of fine flour and oil from it, along with all its frankincense, and will burn this memorial portion of it on the altar, a food offering, a pleasing aroma to the LORD.
“The priest will remove the memorial portion[fn] from the grain offering and burn it on the altar, a food offering, a pleasing aroma to the LORD.
“The priest will then burn some of its crushed kernels and oil with all its frankincense as a food offering to the LORD.
“Then the priest is to take some of its blood with his finger and apply it to the horns of the altar of burnt offering. He is to pour out the rest of its blood at the base of the altar.
“If someone incurs guilt in one of these cases, he is to confess he has committed that sin.
“He is to bring it to the priest, who will take a handful from it as its memorial portion and burn it on the altar along with the food offerings to the LORD; it is a sin offering.
“or finds something lost and lies about it; or swears falsely about any of the sinful things a person may do —
“Command Aaron and his sons: This is the law of the burnt offering; the burnt offering itself must remain on the altar's hearth all night until morning, while the fire of the altar is kept burning on it.
“The priest is to remove a handful of fine flour and olive oil from the grain offering, with all the frankincense that is on the offering, and burn its memorial portion on the altar as a pleasing aroma to the LORD.
“Aaron and his sons may eat the rest of it. It is to be eaten in the form of unleavened bread in a holy place; they are to eat it in the courtyard of the tent of meeting.
“This is the offering that Aaron and his sons are to present to the LORD on the day that he is anointed: two quarts[fn] of fine flour as a regular grain offering, half of it in the morning and half in the evening.
“Anything that touches its flesh will become holy, and if any of its blood spatters on a garment, then you must wash that garment[fn] in a holy place.
“But the one who eats meat from the LORD's fellowship sacrifice while he is unclean, that person must be cut off from his people.
“If someone touches anything unclean, whether human uncleanness, an unclean animal, or any unclean, abhorrent[fn] creature, and eats meat from the LORD's fellowship sacrifice, that person is to be cut off from his people.”
“If anyone eats animal fat from a food offering presented to the LORD, the person who eats it is to be cut off from his people.
Next he presented the grain offering, took a handful of it, and burned it on the altar in addition to the morning burnt offering.
“Tell the Israelites: When a woman becomes pregnant and gives birth to a male child, she will be unclean seven days, as she is during the days of her menstrual impurity.
“She will continue in purification from her bleeding for thirty-three days. She must not touch any holy thing or go into the sanctuary until completing her days of purification.
“But if she gives birth to a female child, she will be unclean for two weeks as she is during her menstrual impurity. She will continue in purification from her bleeding for sixty-six days.
“When her days of purification are complete, whether for a son or daughter, she is to bring to the priest at the entrance to the tent of meeting a year-old male lamb for a burnt offering, and a young pigeon or a turtledove for a sin[fn] offering.
“He will present them before the LORD and make atonement on her behalf; she will be clean from her discharge of blood. This is the law for a woman giving birth, whether to a male or female.
“But if she doesn't have sufficient means[fn] for a sheep, she may take two turtledoves or two young pigeons, one for a burnt offering and the other for a sin offering. Then the priest will make atonement on her behalf, and she will be clean.”
“But if the spot on the skin of his body is white and does not appear to be deeper than the skin, and the hair in it has not turned white, the priest will quarantine the stricken person for seven days.
“The priest will make an examination, and if the spot seems to be beneath the skin and the hair in it has turned white, the priest must pronounce him unclean; it is a case of serious skin disease that has broken out in the boil.
“the priest is to examine the condition. If it appears to be deeper than the skin, and the hair in it is yellow and sparse, the priest must pronounce the person unclean. It is a scaly outbreak, a serious skin disease of the head or chin.
“It must be torn down with its stones, its beams, and all its plaster, and taken outside the city to an unclean place.
“Any bed the man with the discharge lies on will be unclean, and any furniture he sits on will be unclean.
“If a man sleeps with a woman and has an emission of semen, both of them are to bathe with water, and they will remain unclean until evening.
“When a woman has a discharge, and it consists of blood from her body, she will be unclean because of her menstruation for seven days. Everyone who touches her will be unclean until evening.
“Anything she lies on during her menstruation will become unclean, and anything she sits on will become unclean.
“Everyone who touches her bed is to wash his clothes and bathe with water, and he will remain unclean until evening.
“If discharge is on the bed or the furniture she was sitting on, when he touches it he will be unclean until evening.
“If a man sleeps with her, and blood from her menstruation gets on him, he will be unclean for seven days, and every bed he lies on will become unclean.
“When a woman has a discharge of her blood for many days, though it is not the time of her menstruation, or if she has a discharge beyond her period, she will be unclean all the days of her unclean discharge, as she is during the days of her menstruation.
“Any bed she lies on during the days of her discharge will be like her bed during menstrual impurity; any furniture she sits on will be unclean as in her menstrual period.
“Everyone who touches them will be unclean; he must wash his clothes and bathe with water, and he will remain unclean until evening.
“The priest is to sacrifice one as a sin offering and the other as a burnt offering. In this way the priest will make atonement for her before the LORD because of her unclean discharge.
“a woman who is in her menstrual period; anyone who has a discharge, whether male or female; and a man who sleeps with a woman who is unclean.”
“instead of bringing it to the entrance to the tent of meeting to present it as an offering to the LORD before his tabernacle — that person will be considered guilty.[fn] He has shed blood and is to be cut off from his people.
“Anyone from the house of Israel or from the aliens who reside among them who eats any blood, I will turn[fn] against that person who eats blood and cut him off from his people.
“You are not to violate the intimacy that belongs to your father and mother.[fn] She is your mother; you must not have sexual intercourse with her.
“You are not to have sexual intercourse with your sister, either your father's daughter or your mother's, whether born at home or born elsewhere. You are not to have sex with her.
“You are not to have sexual intercourse with your father's wife's daughter, who is adopted by[fn] your father; she is your sister.
“You are not to have sexual intercourse with your daughter-in-law. She is your son's wife; you are not to have sex with her.
“You are not to have sexual intercourse with a woman and her daughter. You are not to marry her son's daughter or her daughter's daughter and have sex with her. They are close relatives; it is depraved.
“You are not to marry a woman as a rival to her sister and have sexual intercourse with her during her sister's lifetime.
“You are not to approach a woman during her menstrual impurity to have sexual intercourse with her.
“The land has become defiled, so I am punishing it for its iniquity, and the land will vomit out its inhabitants.
“If a man marries[fn] a woman and her mother, it is depraved. Both he and they must be burned, so that there will be no depravity among you.
“If a man marries his sister, whether his father's daughter or his mother's daughter, and they have sexual relations,[fn] it is a disgrace. They are to be cut off publicly from their people. He has had sexual intercourse with his sister; he will bear his iniquity.
“If a man sleeps with a menstruating woman and has sexual intercourse with her, he has exposed the source of her flow, and she has uncovered the source of her blood. Both of them are to be cut off from their people.
“You are to keep all my statutes and all my ordinances, and do them, so that the land where I am bringing you to live will not vomit you out.
“They are not to marry a woman defiled by prostitution.[fn] They are not to marry one divorced by her husband, for the priest is holy to his God.
“If a priest's daughter defiles herself by promiscuity,[fn] she defiles her father; she must be burned to death.
“But if the priest's daughter becomes widowed or divorced, has no children, and returns to her father's house as in her youth, she may share her father's food. But no outsider may share it.
“But you are not to slaughter an animal from the herd or flock on the same day as its young.
“Speak to the Israelites and tell them: When you enter the land I am giving you and reap its harvest,[fn] you are to bring the first sheaf of your harvest to the priest.
“If any person does not practice self-denial on this particular day, he is to be cut off from his people.
“You may sow your field for six years, and you may prune your vineyard and gather its produce for six years.
“The fiftieth year will be your Jubilee; you are not to sow, reap what grows by itself, or harvest its untended vines.
“It is to be holy to you because it is the Jubilee; you may only eat its produce directly from the field.
“Then the land will yield its fruit, so that you can eat, be satisfied, and live securely in the land.
“I will appoint my blessing for you in the sixth year, so that it will produce a crop sufficient for three years.
“When you sow in the eighth year, you will be eating from the previous harvest. You will be eating this until the ninth year when its harvest comes in.
“If a man sells a residence in a walled city, his right of redemption will last until a year has passed after its sale; his right of redemption will last a year.
“If it is not redeemed by the end of a full year, then the house in the walled city is permanently transferred to its purchaser throughout his generations. It is not to be released on the Jubilee.
“I will give you rain at the right time, and the land will yield its produce, and the trees of the field will bear their fruit.
“and your strength will be used up for nothing. Your land will not yield its produce, and the trees of the land will not bear their fruit.
“Then the land will make up for its Sabbath years during the time it lies desolate, while you are in the land of your enemies. At that time the land will rest and make up for its Sabbaths.
“As long as it lies desolate, it will have the rest it did not have during your Sabbaths when you lived there.
“For the land abandoned by them will make up for its Sabbaths by lying desolate without the people, while they make amends for their iniquity, because they rejected my ordinances and abhorred my statutes.
“Appoint the Levites over the tabernacle of the testimony, all its furnishings, and everything in it. They are to transport the tabernacle and all its articles, take care of it, and camp around it.
The assigned duties of Merari's descendants involved the tabernacle's supports, crossbars, pillars, bases, all its equipment, and all the work related to these,
“They are to spread a blue cloth over the table of the Presence and place the plates and cups on it, as well as the bowls and pitchers for the drink offering. The regular bread offering is to be on it.
“They are to spread a scarlet cloth over them, cover them with a covering made of fine leather, and insert the poles in the table.
“They are to take a blue cloth and cover the lampstand used for light, with its lamps, snuffers, and firepans, as well as its jars of oil by which they service it.
“Then they are to place it with all its utensils inside a covering made of fine leather and put them on the carrying frame.
“They are to transport the tabernacle curtains, the tent of meeting with its covering and the covering made of fine leather on top of it, the screen for the entrance to the tent of meeting,
“This is what they are responsible to carry as the whole of their service at the tent of meeting: the supports of the tabernacle, with its crossbars, pillars, and bases,
“and sleeps with another,[fn] but it is concealed from her husband, and she is undetected, even though she has defiled herself, since there is no witness against her, and she wasn't caught in the act;
“then the man is to bring his wife to the priest. He is also to bring an offering for her of two quarts[fn] of barley flour. He is not to pour oil over it or put frankincense on it because it is a grain offering of jealousy, a grain offering for remembrance to draw attention to guilt.
“After the priest has the woman stand before the LORD, he is to let down her hair[fn] and place in her hands the grain offering for remembrance, which is the grain offering of jealousy. The priest is to hold the bitter water that brings a curse.
“The priest is to take a handful of the grain offering as a memorial portion and burn it on the altar. Afterward, he will require the woman to drink the water.
“When he makes her drink the water, if she has defiled herself and been unfaithful to her husband, the water that brings a curse will enter her to cause bitter suffering; her belly will swell, and her womb will shrivel. She will become a curse among her people.
On the day Moses finished setting up the tabernacle, he anointed and consecrated it and all its furnishings, along with the altar and all its utensils. After he anointed and consecrated these things,
So Aaron did this; he set up its lamps to give light in front of the lampstand just as the LORD had commanded Moses.
This is the way the lampstand was made: it was a hammered work of gold, hammered from its base to its flower petals. The lampstand was made according to the pattern the LORD had shown Moses.
“But the man who is ceremonially clean, is not on a journey, and yet fails to observe the Passover is to be cut off from his people, because he did not present the LORD's offering at its appointed time. That man will bear the consequences of his sin.
Whether it was two days, a month, or longer,[fn] the Israelites camped and did not set out as long as the cloud stayed over the tabernacle. But when it was lifted, they set out.
“Please don't let her be like a dead baby[fn] whose flesh is half eaten away when he comes out of his mother's womb.”
The LORD answered Moses, “If her father had merely spit in her face, wouldn't she remain in disgrace for seven days? Let her be confined outside the camp for seven days; after that she may be brought back in.”
“See what the land is like, and whether the people who live there are strong or weak, few or many.
“Is the land they live in good or bad? Are the cities they live in encampments or fortifications?
They reported to Moses, “We went into the land where you sent us. Indeed it is flowing with milk and honey, and here is some of its fruit.
“However, the people living in the land are strong, and the cities are large and fortified. We also saw the descendants of Anak there.
So they gave a negative report to the Israelites about the land they had scouted: “The land we passed through to explore is one that devours its inhabitants, and all the people we saw in it are men of great size.
“I swear that none of you will enter the land I promised[fn] to settle you in, except Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun.
“I will bring your children whom you said would become plunder into the land you rejected, and they will enjoy it.
So the men Moses sent to scout out the land, and who returned and incited the entire community to complain about him by spreading a negative report about the land —
“But the person who acts defiantly,[fn] whether native or resident alien, blasphemes the LORD. That person is to be cut off from his people.
“He will certainly be cut off, because he has despised the LORD's word and broken his command; his guilt remains on him.”
“But if the LORD brings about something unprecedented, and the ground opens its mouth and swallows them along with all that belongs to them so that they go down alive into Sheol, then you will know that these men have despised the LORD.”
“The priest Eleazar is to take some of its blood with his finger and sprinkle it seven times toward the front of the tent of meeting.
“The cow is to be burned in his sight. Its hide, flesh, and blood are to be burned along with its waste.
“Take the staff and assemble the community. You and your brother Aaron are to speak to the rock while they watch, and it will yield its water. You will bring out water for them from the rock and provide drink for the community and their livestock.”
After Moses sent spies to Jazer, Israel captured its surrounding villages and drove out the Amorites who were there.
followed the Israelite man into the tent,[fn] and drove it through both the Israelite man and the woman — through her belly. Then the plague on the Israelites was stopped,
The earth opened its mouth and swallowed them with Korah, when his followers died and the fire consumed 250 men. They serve as a warning sign.
“Offer one male goat for a sin offering. The regular burnt offering with its grain offering and drink offerings are in addition to the sin offering of atonement.
“When a woman in her father's house during her youth makes a vow to the LORD or puts herself under an obligation,
“and her father hears about her vow or the obligation she put herself under, and he says nothing to her, all her vows and every obligation she put herself under are binding.
“But if her father prohibits her on the day he hears about it, none of her vows and none of the obligations she put herself under are binding. The LORD will release her because her father has prohibited her.
“If a woman marries while her vows or the rash commitment she herself made are binding,
“and her husband hears about it and says nothing to her when he finds out, her vows are binding, and the obligations she put herself under are binding.
“But if her husband prohibits her when he hears about it, he will cancel her vow that is binding or the rash commitment she herself made, and the LORD will release her.
“If a woman in her husband's house has made a vow or put herself under an obligation with an oath,
“and her husband hears about it, says nothing to her, and does not prohibit her, all her vows are binding, and every obligation she put herself under is binding.
“But if her husband cancels them on the day he hears about it, nothing that came from her lips, whether her vows or her obligation, is binding. Her husband has canceled them, and the LORD will release her.
“If her husband says nothing at all to her from day to day, he confirms all her vows and obligations, which are binding. He has confirmed them because he said nothing to her when he heard about them.
“But if he cancels them after he hears about them, he will be responsible for her commitment.”[fn]
So Moses gave them — the Gadites, Reubenites, and half the tribe of Manasseh son of Joseph — the kingdom of King Sihon of the Amorites and the kingdom of King Og of Bashan, the land including its cities with the territories surrounding them.
Nobah went and captured Kenath with its surrounding villages and called it Nobah after his own name.
“Command the Israelites and say to them: When you enter the land of Canaan, it will be allotted to you as an inheritance[fn] with these borders:
“Then the border will go down to the Jordan and end at the Dead Sea. This will be your land defined by its borders on all sides.”
“Do not defile the land where you live, for bloodshed defiles the land, and there can be no atonement for the land because of the blood that is shed on it, except by the blood of the person who shed it.
“Do not make the land unclean where you live and where I dwell; for I, the LORD, reside among the Israelites.”
“Any daughter who possesses an inheritance from an Israelite tribe must marry someone from the clan of her ancestral tribe, so that each of the Israelites will possess the inheritance of his fathers.
“who went before you on the journey to seek out a place for you to camp. He went in the fire by night and in the cloud by day to guide you on the road you were to travel.
The Emim, a great and numerous people as tall as the Anakim, had previously lived there.
This too used to be regarded as the land of the Rephaim. The Rephaim lived there previously, though the Ammonites called them Zamzummim,
“I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you today that you will quickly perish from the land you are about to cross the Jordan to possess. You will not live long there, but you will certainly be destroyed.
“a land where you will eat food without shortage, where you will lack nothing; a land whose rocks are iron and from whose hills you will mine copper.
“and what he did to Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab the Reubenite, when in the middle of the whole Israelite camp the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them, their households, their tents, and every living thing with them.
“It is a land the LORD your God cares for. He is always watching over it from the beginning to the end of the year.
“Then the LORD's anger will burn against you. He will shut the sky, and there will be no rain; the land will not yield its produce, and you will perish quickly from the good land the LORD is giving you.
“No one will be able to stand against you; the LORD your God will put fear and dread of you in all the land where you set foot, as he has promised you.
“You are to gather all its spoil in the middle of the city square and completely burn the city and all its spoil for the LORD your God. The city is to remain a mound of ruins forever; it is not to be rebuilt.
“When you enter the land the LORD your God is giving you, take possession of it, live in it, and say, ‘I will set a king over me like all the nations around me,'
“When the LORD your God hands it over to you, strike down all its males with the sword.
“When you lay siege to a city for a long time, fighting against it in order to capture it, do not destroy its trees by putting an ax to them, because you can get food from them. Do not cut them down. Are trees of the field human, to come under siege by you?
“if you see a beautiful woman among the captives, desire her, and want to take her as your wife,
“remove the clothes she was wearing when she was taken prisoner, live in your house, and mourn for her father and mother a full month. After that, you may have sexual relations with her and be her husband, and she will be your wife.
“and accuses her of shameful conduct, and gives her a bad name, saying, ‘I married this woman and was intimate with her, but I didn't find any evidence of her virginity,'
they will bring the woman to the door of her father's house, and the men of her city will stone her to death. For she has committed an outrage in Israel by being promiscuous while living in her father's house. You must purge the evil from you.
“If there is a young woman who is a virgin engaged to a man, and another man encounters her in the city and sleeps with her,
“But if the man encounters an engaged woman in the open country, and he seizes and rapes her, only the man who raped her must die.
“If a man encounters a young woman, a virgin who is not engaged, takes hold of her and rapes her, and they are discovered,
“the man who raped her is to give the young woman's father fifty silver shekels, and she will become his wife because he violated her. He cannot divorce her as long as he lives.
“If a man marries a woman, but she becomes displeasing to him because he finds something indecent about her, he may write her a divorce certificate, hand it to her, and send her away from his house.
“and the second man hates her, writes her a divorce certificate, hands it to her, and sends her away from his house or if he dies,
“When brothers live on the same property[fn] and one of them dies without a son, the wife of the dead man may not marry a stranger outside the family. Her brother-in-law is to take her as his wife, have sexual relations with her, and perform the duty of a brother-in-law for her.
“If two men are fighting with each other, and the wife of one steps in to rescue her husband from the one striking him, and she puts out her hand and grabs his genitals,
“When you enter the land the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance, and you take possession of it and live in it,
“The most sensitive and refined woman among you, who would not venture to set the sole of her foot on the ground because of her refinement and sensitivity, will begrudge the husband she embraces, her son, and her daughter,
“the afterbirth that comes out from between her legs and the children she bears, because she will secretly eat them for lack of anything else during the siege and hardship your enemy imposes on you within your city gates.
“Future generations of your children who follow you and the foreigner who comes from a distant country will see the plagues of that land and the sicknesses the LORD has inflicted on it.
“All its soil will be a burning waste of sulfur and salt, unsown, producing nothing, with no plant growing on it, just like the fall of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, which the LORD demolished in his fierce anger.
“For fire has been kindled because of my anger
and burns to the depths of Sheol;
it devours the land and its produce,
and scorches the foundations of the mountains.
“unless, when we enter the land, you tie this scarlet cord to the window through which you let us down. Bring your father, mother, brothers, and all your father's family into your house.
and commanded the people, “When you see the ark of the covenant of the LORD your God carried by the Levitical priests, you are to break camp and follow it.
Now Jericho was strongly fortified because of the Israelites — no one leaving or entering.
The LORD said to Joshua, “Look, I have handed Jericho, its king, and its best soldiers over to you.
“But the city and everything in it are set apart to the LORD for destruction. Only Rahab the prostitute and everyone with her in the house will live, because she hid the messengers we sent.
So the young men who had scouted went in and brought out Rahab and her father, mother, brothers, and all who belonged to her. They brought out her whole family and settled them outside the camp of Israel.
However, Joshua spared Rahab the prostitute, her father's family, and all who belonged to her, because she hid the messengers Joshua had sent to spy on Jericho, and she still lives in Israel today.
At that time Joshua imposed this curse:
The man who undertakes
the rebuilding of this city, Jericho,
is cursed before the LORD.
He will lay its foundation
at the cost of his firstborn;
he will finish its gates
at the cost of his youngest.
“Treat Ai and its king as you did Jericho and its king, except that you may plunder its spoil and livestock for yourselves. Set an ambush behind the city.”
When Israel had finished killing everyone living in Ai who had pursued them into the open country, and when every last one of them had fallen by the sword, all Israel returned to Ai and struck it down with the sword.
The Gibeonites answered him, “It was clearly communicated to your servants that the LORD your God had commanded his servant Moses to give you all the land and to destroy all the inhabitants of the land before you. We greatly feared for our lives because of you, and that is why we did this.
Now King Adoni-zedek of Jerusalem heard that Joshua had captured Ai and completely destroyed it, treating Ai and its king as he had Jericho and its king, and that the inhabitants of Gibeon had made peace with Israel and were living among them.
So Adoni-zedek and his people were[fn] greatly alarmed because Gibeon was a large city like one of the royal cities; it was larger than Ai, and all its men were warriors.
The LORD also handed it and its king over to Israel. He struck it down, putting everyone in it to the sword, and left no survivors in it. He treated Libnah's king as he had the king of Jericho.
He captured it — its king and all its villages. They struck them down with the sword and completely destroyed everyone in it, leaving no survivors. He treated Debir and its king as he had treated Hebron and as he had treated Libnah and its king.
So Joshua conquered the whole region — the hill country, the Negev, the Judean foothills,[fn] and the slopes — with all their kings, leaving no survivors. He completely destroyed every living being, as the LORD, the God of Israel, had commanded.
At that time Joshua turned back, captured Hazor, and struck down its king with the sword, because Hazor had formerly been the leader of all these kingdoms.
The Israelites plundered all the spoils and cattle of these cities for themselves. But they struck down every person with the sword until they had annihilated them, leaving no one alive.
and Caleb said, “Whoever attacks and captures Kiriath-sepher, I will give my daughter Achsah to him as a wife.”
Shaaraim, Adithaim, Gederah, and Gederothaim — fourteen cities, with their settlements;
Ashdod, with its surrounding villages and settlements; Gaza, with its surrounding villages and settlements, to the Brook of Egypt and the coastline of the Mediterranean Sea.
Within Issachar and Asher, Manasseh had Beth-shean, Ibleam, and the inhabitants of Dor with their surrounding villages; the inhabitants of En-dor, Taanach, and Megiddo — the three cities of[fn] Naphath — with their surrounding villages.
But the descendants of Joseph said, “The hill country is not enough for us, and all the Canaanites who inhabit the valley area have iron chariots, both at Beth-shean with its surrounding villages and in the Jezreel Valley.”
So the men left, went through the land, and described it by towns in a document of seven sections. They returned to Joshua at the camp in Shiloh.
The Jordan formed the border on the east side.
This was the inheritance of Benjamin's descendants, by their clans, according to its surrounding borders.
When the territory of the descendants of Dan slipped out of their control, they went up and fought against Leshem, captured it, and struck it down with the sword. So they took possession of it, lived there, and renamed Leshem after their ancestor Dan.
They gave them Kiriath-arba (that is, Hebron; Arba was the father of Anak) with its surrounding pasturelands in the hill country of Judah.
But they gave the fields and settlements of the city to Caleb son of Jephunneh as his possession.
From the tribe of Zebulun, they gave to the clans of the descendants of Merari, who were the remaining Levites:
Jokneam with its pasturelands, Kartah with its pasturelands,
From the tribe of Reuben they gave:
Bezer with its pasturelands, Jahzah[fn] with its pasturelands,
Kedemoth with its pasturelands, and Mephaath with its pasturelands — four cities.[fn]
From the tribe of Gad they gave:
Ramoth in Gilead, the city of refuge for the one who commits manslaughter, with its pasturelands, Mahanaim with its pasturelands,
Heshbon with its pasturelands, and Jazer with its pasturelands — four cities in all.
The Israelites were pleased with the report, and they blessed God. They spoke no more about going to war against them to ravage the land where the Reubenites and Gadites lived.
“I gave you a land you did not labor for, and cities you did not build, though you live in them; you are eating from vineyards and olive groves you did not plant.'
When she arrived, she persuaded Othniel to ask her father for a field. As she got off her donkey, Caleb asked her, “What do you want? ”
She answered him, “Give me a blessing. Since you have given me land in the Negev, give me springs also.” So Caleb gave her both the upper and lower springs.
Judah captured Gaza and its territory, Ashkelon and its territory, and Ekron and its territory.
Then the man went to the land of the Hittites, built a town, and named it Luz. That is its name still today.
At that time Manasseh failed to take possession of Beth-shean and Taanach and their surrounding villages, or the residents of Dor, Ibleam, and Megiddo and their surrounding villages; the Canaanites were determined to stay in this land.
Jael went out to greet Sisera and said to him, “Come in, my lord. Come in with me. Don't be afraid.” So he went into her tent, and she covered him with a blanket.
Then he said to her, “Stand at the entrance to the tent. If a man comes and asks you, ‘Is there a man here? ' say, ‘No.' ”
While he was sleeping from exhaustion, Heber's wife, Jael, took a tent peg, grabbed a hammer, and went silently to Sisera. She hammered the peg into his temple and drove it into the ground, and he died.
“Curse Meroz,” says the angel of the LORD,
“Bitterly curse her inhabitants,
for they did not come to help the LORD,
to help the LORD with the warriors.”
She reached for a tent peg,
her right hand, for a workman's hammer.
Then she hammered Sisera —
she crushed his head;
she shattered and pierced his temple.
He collapsed, he fell, he lay down between her feet;
he collapsed, he fell between her feet;
where he collapsed, there he fell — dead.
He captured a youth from the men of Succoth and interrogated him. The youth wrote down for him the names of the seventy-seven leaders and elders of Succoth.
“While Israel lived three hundred years in Heshbon and Aroer and their surrounding villages, and in all the cities that are on the banks of the Arnon, why didn't you take them back at that time?
When Jephthah went to his home in Mizpah, there was his daughter, coming out to meet him with tambourines and dancing! She was his only child; he had no other son or daughter besides her.
She also said to her father, “Let me do this one thing: Let me wander two months through the mountains with my friends and mourn my virginity.”
“Go,” he said. And he sent her away two months. So she left with her friends and mourned her virginity as she wandered through the mountains.
At the end of two months, she returned to her father, and he kept the vow he had made about her. And she had never been intimate with a man. Now it became a custom in Israel
Then the woman went and told her husband, “A man of God came to me. He looked like the awe-inspiring angel of God. I didn't ask him where he came from, and he didn't tell me his name.
God listened to Manoah, and the angel of God came again to the woman. She was sitting in the field, and her husband, Manoah, was not with her.
The woman ran quickly to her husband and told him, “The man who came to me the other day has just come back! ”
She wept the whole seven days of the feast, and at last, on the seventh day, he explained it to her, because she had nagged him so much. Then she explained it to her people.
Later on, during the wheat harvest, Samson took a young goat as a gift and visited his wife. “I want to go to my wife in her room,” he said. But her father would not let him enter.
“I was sure you hated her,” her father said, “so I gave her to one of the men who accompanied you. Isn't her younger sister more beautiful than she is? Why not take her instead? ”
Then the Philistines asked, “Who did this? ”
They were told, “It was Samson, the Timnite's son-in-law, because he took Samson's wife and gave her to his companion.” So the Philistines went to her and her father and burned them to death.
So God split a hollow place in the ground at Lehi, and water came out of it. After Samson drank, his strength returned, and he revived. That is why he named it Hakkore Spring,[fn] which is still in Lehi today.
Because she nagged him day after day and pleaded with him until she wore him out,[fn]
Then she let him fall asleep on her lap and called a man to shave off the seven braids on his head. In this way, she made him helpless, and his strength left him.
But she was unfaithful to[fn] him and left him for her father's house in Bethlehem in Judah. She was there for four months.
Then her husband got up and followed her to speak kindly to her and bring her back. He had his servant with him and a pair of donkeys. So she brought him to her father's house, and when the girl's father saw him, he gladly welcomed him.
Early that morning, the woman made her way back, and as it was getting light, she collapsed at the doorway of the man's house where her master was.
When her master got up in the morning, opened the doors of the house, and went out to leave on his journey, there was the woman, his concubine, collapsed near the doorway of the house with her hands on the threshold.
When he entered his house, he picked up a knife, took hold of his concubine, cut her into twelve pieces, limb by limb, and then sent her throughout the territory of Israel.
Everyone who saw it said, “Nothing like this has ever happened or has been seen since the day the Israelites came out of the land of Egypt until now.[fn] Think it over, discuss it, and speak up! ”
and Phinehas son of Eleazar, son of Aaron, was serving before it. The Israelites asked, “Should we again fight against our brothers the Benjaminites or should we stop? ”
The LORD answered, “Fight, because I will hand them over to you tomorrow.”
both Mahlon and Chilion also died, and the woman was left without her two children and without her husband.
She and her daughters-in-law set out to return from the territory of Moab, because she had heard in Moab that the LORD had paid attention to his people's need by providing them food.
She left the place where she had been living, accompanied by her two daughters-in-law, and traveled along the road leading back to the land of Judah.
Naomi said to them, “Each of you go back to your mother's home. May the LORD show kindness to you as you have shown to the dead and to me.
“May the LORD grant each of you rest in the house of a new husband.” She kissed them, and they wept loudly.
Naomi said, “Look, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods. Follow your sister-in-law.”
So Naomi came back from the territory of Moab with her daughter-in-law Ruth the Moabitess. They arrived in Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest.
Now Naomi had a relative on her husband's side. He was a prominent man of noble character from Elimelech's family. His name was Boaz.
She fell facedown, bowed to the ground, and said to him, “Why have I found favor with you, so that you notice me, although I am a foreigner? ”
She picked up the grain and went into the town, where her mother-in-law saw what she had gleaned. She brought out what she had left over from her meal and gave it to her.
Her mother-in-law said to her, “Where did you gather barley today, and where did you work? May the LORD bless the man who noticed you.”
Ruth told her mother-in-law whom she had worked with and said, “The name of the man I worked with today is Boaz.”
Then Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, “May the LORD bless him because he has not abandoned his kindness to the living or the dead.” Naomi continued, “The man is a close relative. He is one of our family redeemers.”
Ruth the Moabitess said, “He also told me, ‘Stay with my young men until they have finished all of my harvest.' ”
So Naomi said to her daughter-in-law Ruth, “My daughter, it is good for you to work[fn] with his female servants, so that nothing will happen to you in another field.”
Ruth stayed close to Boaz's female servants and gathered grain until the barley and the wheat harvests were finished. And she lived with[fn] her mother-in-law.
Ruth's mother-in-law Naomi said to her, “My daughter, shouldn't I find rest for you, so that you will be taken care of?
She went down to the threshing floor and did everything her mother-in-law had charged her to do.
She went to her mother-in-law, Naomi, who asked her, “What happened,[fn] my daughter? ”
Then Ruth told her everything the man had done for her.
Whenever Elkanah offered a sacrifice, he always gave portions of the meat to his wife Peninnah and to each of her sons and daughters.
But he gave a double[fn] portion to Hannah, for he loved her even though the LORD had kept her from conceiving.
Her rival would taunt her severely just to provoke her, because the LORD had kept Hannah from conceiving.
“Hannah, why are you crying? ” her husband, Elkanah, would ask. “Why won't you eat? Why are you troubled? Am I not better to you than ten sons? ”
Hannah was praying silently, and though her lips were moving, her voice could not be heard. Eli thought she was drunk
“May your servant find favor with you,” she replied. Then Hannah went on her way; she ate and no longer looked despondent.[fn]
The next morning Elkanah and Hannah got up early to worship before the LORD. Afterward, they returned home to Ramah. Then Elkanah was intimate with his wife Hannah, and the LORD remembered her.
Hannah did not go and explained to her husband, “After the child is weaned, I'll take him to appear in the LORD's presence and to stay there permanently.”
Her husband, Elkanah, replied, “Do what you think is best, and stay here until you've weaned him. May the LORD confirm your[fn] word.” So Hannah stayed there and nursed her son until she weaned him.
Each year his mother made him a little robe and took it to him when she went with her husband to offer the annual sacrifice.
Eli's daughter-in-law, the wife of Phinehas, was pregnant and about to give birth. When she heard the news about the capture of God's ark and the deaths of her father-in-law and her husband, she collapsed and gave birth because her labor pains came on her.
As she was dying,[fn] the women taking care of her said, “Don't be afraid. You've given birth to a son! ” But she did not respond or pay attention.
She named the boy Ichabod,[fn] saying, “The glory has departed from Israel,” referring to the capture of the ark of God and to the deaths of her father-in-law and her husband.
When the people of Ashdod got up early the next morning, there was Dagon, fallen with his face to the ground before the ark of the LORD. So they took Dagon and returned him to his place.
The Ekronites called all the Philistine rulers together. They said, “Send the ark of Israel's God away. Let it return to its place so it won't kill us and our people! ”[fn] For the fear of death pervaded the city; God's hand was oppressing them.
the Philistines summoned the priests and the diviners and pleaded, “What should we do with the ark of the LORD? Tell us how we can send it back to its place.”
“Take the ark of the LORD, place it on the cart, and put the gold objects that you're sending him as a guilt offering in a box beside the ark. Send it off and let it go its way.
“Then watch: If it goes up the road to its homeland toward Beth-shemesh, it is the LORD who has made this terrible trouble for us. However, if it doesn't, we will know that it was not his hand that punished us — it was just something that happened to us by chance.”
The cows went straight up the road to Beth-shemesh. They stayed on that one highway, lowing as they went; they never strayed to the right or to the left. The Philistine rulers were walking behind them to the territory of Beth-shemesh.
The people of Beth-shemesh were harvesting wheat in the valley, and when they looked up and saw the ark, they were overjoyed to see it.
The Levites removed the ark of the LORD, along with the box containing the gold objects, and placed them on the large rock. That day the people of Beth-shemesh offered burnt offerings and made sacrifices to the LORD.
Then she said to her male servants, “Go ahead of me. I will be right behind you.” But she did not tell her husband, Nabal.
As she rode the donkey down a mountain pass hidden from view, she saw David and his men coming toward her and met them.
When Abigail saw David, she quickly got off the donkey and knelt down with her face to the ground and paid homage to David.
Then David accepted what she had brought him and said, “Go home in peace. See, I have heard what you said and have granted your request.”
Her husband followed her, weeping all the way to Bahurim. Abner said to him, “Go back.” So he went back.
He and all his troops set out to bring the ark of God from Baale-judah.[fn] The ark bears the Name, the name of the LORD of Armies who is enthroned between the cherubim.
As the ark of the LORD was entering the city of David, Saul's daughter Michal looked down from the window and saw King David leaping and dancing before the LORD, and she despised him in her heart.
They brought the ark of the LORD and set it in its place inside the tent David had pitched for it. Then David offered burnt offerings and fellowship offerings in the LORD's presence.
David sent messengers to get her, and when she came to him, he slept with her. Now she had just been purifying herself from her uncleanness. Afterward, she returned home.
Jonadab said to him, “Lie down on your bed and pretend you're sick. When your father comes to see you, say to him, ‘Please let my sister Tamar come and give me something to eat. Let her prepare a meal in my presence so I can watch and eat from her hand.' ”
So Amnon lay down and pretended to be sick. When the king came to see him, Amnon said to him, “Please let my sister Tamar come and make a couple of cakes in my presence so I can eat from her hand.”
Then Tamar went to his house while Amnon was lying down. She took dough, kneaded it, made cakes in his presence, and baked them.
“Bring the meal to the bedroom,” Amnon told Tamar, “so I can eat from your hand.” Tamar took the cakes she had made and went to her brother Amnon's bedroom.
When she brought them to him to eat, he grabbed her and said,[fn] “Come sleep with me, my sister! ”
But he refused to listen to her, and because he was stronger than she was, he disgraced her by raping her.
“No,” she cried,[fn] “sending me away is much worse than the great wrong you've already done to me! ”
But he refused to listen to her.
Instead, he called to the servant who waited on him, “Get this away from me, throw her out, and bolt the door behind her! ”
Amnon's servant threw her out and bolted the door behind her. Now Tamar was wearing a long-sleeved[fn] robe, because this is what the king's virgin daughters wore.
Tamar put ashes on her head and tore the long-sleeved robe she was wearing. She put her hand on her head and went away crying out.
Her brother Absalom said to her, “Has your brother Amnon been with you? Be quiet for now, my sister. He is your brother. Don't take this thing to heart.” So Tamar lived as a desolate woman in the house of her brother Absalom.
“Go to the king and speak these words to him.” Then Joab told her exactly what to say.[fn]
When the woman from Tekoa came[fn] to the king, she fell facedown to the ground, paid homage, and said, “Help me, Your Majesty! ”
Then the king instructed Zadok, “Return the ark of God to the city. If I find favor with the LORD, he will bring me back and allow me to see both it and its[fn] dwelling place.
“and bring all the people back to you. When everyone returns except the man you're looking for, all[fn] the people will be at peace.”
They were at the great stone in Gibeon when Amasa joined them. Joab was wearing his uniform and over it was a belt around his waist with a sword in its sheath. As he approached, the sword fell out.
The woman went to all the people with her wise counsel, and they cut off the head of Sheba son of Bichri and threw it to Joab. So he blew the ram's horn, and they dispersed from the city, each to his own tent. Joab returned to the king in Jerusalem.
At that moment, while she was still speaking with the king, the prophet Nathan arrived,
“She got up in the middle of the night and took my son from my side while your servant was asleep. She laid him in her arms, and she put her dead son in my arms.
The woman whose son was alive spoke to the king because she felt great compassion[fn] for her son. “My lord, give her the living baby,” she said, “but please don't have him killed! ”
But the other one said, “He will not be mine or yours. Cut him in two! ”
He made the hall of pillars seventy-five feet long and forty-five feet wide. A portico was in front of the pillars, and a canopy with pillars[fn] was in front of them.
Ornamental gourds encircled it below the brim, ten every half yard,[fn] completely encircling the basin. The gourds were cast in two rows when the basin was cast.
Four supports were at the four corners of each water cart; each support was one piece with the water cart.
At the top of the cart was a band nine inches[fn] high encircling it; also, at the top of the cart, its braces and its frames were one piece with it.
He engraved cherubim, lions, and palm trees on the plates of its braces and on its frames, wherever each had space, with encircling wreaths.
The priests brought the ark of the LORD's covenant to its place, into the inner sanctuary of the temple, to the most holy place beneath the wings of the cherubim.
For the cherubim were spreading their wings over[fn] the place of the ark, so that the cherubim covered the ark and its poles from above.
She came to Jerusalem with a very large entourage, with camels bearing spices, gold in great abundance, and precious stones. She came to Solomon and spoke to him about everything that was on her mind.
So Solomon answered all her questions; nothing was too difficult for the king to explain to her.
King Solomon gave the queen of Sheba her every desire — whatever she asked — besides what he had given her out of his royal bounty. Then she, along with her servants, returned to her own country.
Tahpenes's sister gave birth to Hadad's son Genubath. Tahpenes herself weaned him in Pharaoh's palace, and Genubath lived there along with Pharaoh's sons.
He also removed his grandmother[fn] Maacah from being queen mother because she had made an obscene image of Asherah. Asa chopped down her obscene image and burned it in the Kidron Valley.
Then King Asa gave a command to everyone without exception in Judah, and they carried away the stones of Ramah and the timbers Baasha had built it with. Then King Asa built Geba of Benjamin and Mizpah with them.
Omri rested with his ancestors and was buried in Samaria. His son Ahab became king in his place.
During his reign, Hiel the Bethelite built Jericho. At the cost of Abiram his firstborn, he laid its foundation, and at the cost of Segub his youngest, he finished its gates, according to the word of the LORD he had spoken through Joshua son of Nun.
So Elijah got up and went to Zarephath. When he arrived at the city gate, there was a widow gathering wood. Elijah called to her and said, “Please bring me a little water in a cup and let me drink.”
As she went to get it, he called to her and said, “Please bring me a piece of bread in your hand.”
So she proceeded to do according to the word of Elijah. Then the woman, Elijah, and her household ate for many days.
But Elijah said to her, “Give me your son.” So he took him from her arms, brought him up to the upstairs room where he was staying, and laid him on his own bed.
Then he cried out to the LORD and said, “LORD my God, have you also brought tragedy on the widow I am staying with by killing her son? ”
“As the LORD your God lives, there is no nation or kingdom where my lord has not sent someone to search for you. When they said, ‘He is not here,' he made that kingdom or nation swear they had not found you.
He walked in all the ways of his father Asa; he did not turn away from them but did what was right in the LORD's sight. However, the high places were not taken away;[fn] the people still sacrificed and burned incense on the high places.
“Therefore, this is what the LORD says: You will not get up from your sickbed; you will certainly die.' ” Then Elijah left.
They replied, “A man came to meet us and said, ‘Go back to the king who sent you and declare to him, “This is what the LORD says: Is it because there is no God in Israel that you're sending these men to inquire of Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron? Therefore, you will not get up from your sickbed; you will certainly die.” ' ”
Then Elijah said to King Ahaziah, “This is what the LORD says: ‘Because you have sent messengers to inquire of Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron — is it because there is no God in Israel for you to inquire of his will? — you will not get up from your sickbed; you will certainly die.' ”
Nevertheless, Joram clung to the sins that Jeroboam son of Nebat had caused Israel to commit. He did not turn away from them.
So she left.
After she had shut the door behind her and her sons, they kept bringing her containers, and she kept pouring.
When they were full, she said to her son, “Bring me another container.”
But he replied, “There aren't any more.” Then the oil stopped.
Then she said to her husband, “I know that the one who often passes by here is a holy man of God,
So he asked, “Then what should be done for her? ”
Gehazi answered, “Well, she has no son, and her husband is old.”
So he picked him up and took him to his mother. The child sat on her lap until noon and then died.
She summoned her husband and said, “Please send me one of the servants and one of the donkeys, so I can hurry to the man of God and come back again.”
Then she saddled the donkey and said to her servant, “Go fast; don't slow the pace for me unless I tell you.”
“Run out to meet her and ask, ‘Are you all right? Is your husband all right? Is your son all right? ' ”
And she answered, “It's all right.”
When she came up to the man of God at the mountain, she clung to his feet. Gehazi came to push her away, but the man of God said, “Leave her alone — she is in severe anguish, and the LORD has hidden it from me. He hasn't told me.”
The boy's mother said to Elisha, “As the LORD lives and as you yourself live, I will not leave you.” So he got up and followed her.
Gehazi went ahead of them and placed the staff on the boy's face, but there was no sound or sign of life, so he went back to meet Elisha and told him, “The boy didn't wake up.”
One went out to the field to gather herbs and found a wild vine from which he gathered as many wild gourds as his garment would hold. Then he came back and cut them up into the pot of stew, but they were unaware of what they were.[fn]
She said to her mistress, “If only my master were with the prophet who is in Samaria, he would cure him of his skin disease.”
“So we boiled my son and ate him, and I said to her the next day, ‘Give up your son, and we will eat him,' but she has hidden her son.”
So the woman got ready and did what the man of God said. She and her household lived as resident aliens in the land of the Philistines for seven years.
While he was telling the king how Elisha restored the dead son to life, the woman whose son he had restored to life came to appeal to the king for her house and field. So Gehazi said, “My lord the king, this is the woman and this is the son Elisha restored to life.”
When the king asked the woman, she told him the story. So the king appointed a court official for her, saying, “Restore all that was hers, along with all the income from the field from the day she left the country until now.”
When Joram saw Jehu he asked, “Do you come in peace, Jehu? ”
He answered, “What peace can there be as long as there is so much prostitution and sorcery from your mother Jezebel? ”
When Jehu came to Jezreel, Jezebel heard about it, so she painted her eyes, fixed her hair,[fn] and looked down from the window.
and he said, “Throw her down! ” So they threw her down, and some of her blood splattered on the wall and on the horses, and Jehu rode over her.
When Athaliah, Ahaziah's mother, saw that her son was dead, she proceeded to annihilate all the royal heirs.
Jehosheba, who was King Jehoram's daughter and Ahaziah's sister, secretly rescued Joash son of Ahaziah from among the king's sons who were being killed and put him and the one who nursed him in a bedroom. So he was hidden from Athaliah and was not killed.
Joash was in hiding with her in the LORD's temple six years while Athaliah reigned over the land.
Then the priest Jehoiada ordered the commanders of hundreds in charge of the army, “Take her out between the ranks, and put to death by the sword anyone who follows her,” for the priest had said, “She is not to be put to death in the LORD's temple.”
Then the priest Jehoiada took a chest, bored a hole in its lid, and set it beside the altar on the right side as one enters the LORD's temple; the priests who guarded the threshold put into the chest all the silver that was brought to the LORD's temple.
Amaziah killed ten thousand Edomites in Salt Valley. He took Sela in battle and called it Joktheel, which is still its name today.
At that time, starting from Tirzah, Menahem attacked Tiphsah, all who were in it, and its territory because they wouldn't surrender. He ripped open all the pregnant women.
The Israelites persisted in all the sins that Jeroboam committed and did not turn away from them.
Then the king of Assyria brought people from Babylon, Cuthah, Avva, Hamath, and Sepharvaim and settled them in place of the Israelites in the cities of Samaria. The settlers took possession of Samaria and lived in its cities.
He defeated the Philistines as far as Gaza and its borders, from watchtower to fortified city.
“This is the word the LORD has spoken against him:
Virgin Daughter Zion
despises you and scorns you;
Daughter Jerusalem
shakes her head behind your back.
Caleb son of Hezron had children by his wife Azubah and by Jerioth. These were Azubah's sons: Jesher, Shobab, and Ardon.
Aaron's descendants were given:
Hebron (a city of refuge), Libnah and its pasturelands, Jattir, Eshtemoa and its pasturelands,
From the tribe of Benjamin they were given Geba and its pasturelands, Alemeth and its pasturelands, and Anathoth and its pasturelands. They had thirteen towns in all among their families.
Shechem (a city of refuge) with its pasturelands in the hill country of Ephraim, Gezer and its pasturelands,
From half the tribe of Manasseh, Aner and its pasturelands, and Bileam and its pasturelands were given to the rest of the families of the Kohathites.
The Gershomites received:
Golan in Bashan and its pasturelands, and Ashtaroth and its pasturelands from the families of half the tribe of Manasseh.
From the tribe of Issachar they received Kedesh and its pasturelands, Daberath and its pasturelands,
From the tribe of Asher they received Mashal and its pasturelands, Abdon and its pasturelands,
From the tribe of Naphtali they received Kedesh in Galilee and its pasturelands, Hammon and its pasturelands, and Kiriathaim and its pasturelands.
The rest of the Merarites received:
From the tribe of Zebulun they received Rimmono and its pasturelands and Tabor and its pasturelands.
From the tribe of Reuben across the Jordan at Jericho, to the east of the Jordan, they received Bezer in the desert and its pasturelands, Jahzah and its pasturelands,
From the tribe of Gad they received Ramoth in Gilead and its pasturelands, Mahanaim and its pasturelands,
Their holdings and settlements were Bethel and its surrounding villages; Naaran to the east, Gezer and its villages to the west, and Shechem and its villages as far as Ayyah and its villages,
and along the borders of the descendants of Manasseh, Beth-shean, Taanach, Megiddo, and Dor with their surrounding villages. The sons of Joseph son of Israel lived in these towns.
Elpaal's sons: Eber, Misham, and Shemed who built Ono and Lod and its surrounding villages,
As the ark of the covenant of the LORD was entering the city of David, Saul's daughter Michal looked down from the window and saw King David leaping[fn] and dancing, and she despised him in her heart.
After this, David defeated the Philistines, subdued them, and took Gath and its surrounding villages from Philistine control.
“Also, the Levites no longer need to carry the tabernacle or any of the equipment for its service” —
The priests brought the ark of the LORD's covenant to its place, into the inner sanctuary of the temple, to the most holy place, beneath the wings of the cherubim.
And the cherubim spread their wings over the place of the ark so that the cherubim formed a cover above the ark and its poles.
The queen of Sheba heard of Solomon's fame, so she came to test Solomon with difficult questions at Jerusalem with a very large entourage, with camels bearing spices, gold in abundance, and precious stones. She came to Solomon and spoke with him about everything that was on her mind.
So Solomon answered all her questions; nothing was too difficult for Solomon to explain to her.
King Solomon gave the queen of Sheba her every desire, whatever she asked — far more than she had brought the king. Then she, along with her servants, returned to her own country.
Abijah pursued Jeroboam and captured some cities from him: Bethel, Jeshanah, and Ephron,[fn] along with their surrounding villages.
Then King Asa brought all Judah, and they carried away the stones of Ramah and the timbers Baasha had built it with. Then he built Geba and Mizpah with them.
When Athaliah, Ahaziah's mother, saw that her son was dead, she proceeded to annihilate all the royal heirs[fn] of the house of Judah.
He was hiding with them in God's temple for six years while Athaliah reigned over the land.
As she looked, there was the king standing by his pillar[fn] at the entrance. The commanders and the trumpeters were by the king, and all the people of the land were rejoicing and blowing trumpets while the singers with musical instruments were leading the praise. Athaliah tore her clothes and screamed, “Treason! Treason! ”
Then the priest Jehoiada sent out the commanders of hundreds, those in charge of the army, saying, “Take her out between the ranks, and put anyone who follows her to death by the sword,” for the priest had said, “Don't put her to death in the LORD's temple.”
“For the sons of that wicked Athaliah broke into the LORD's temple and even used the sacred things of the LORD's temple for the Baals.”
The Philistines also raided the cities of the Judean foothills[fn] and the Negev of Judah. They captured and occupied Beth-shemesh, Aijalon, and Gederoth, as well as Soco, Timnah, and Gimzo with their surrounding villages.
Then they went inside to King Hezekiah and said, “We have cleansed the whole temple of the LORD, the altar of burnt offering and all its utensils, and the table for the rows of the Bread of the Presence and all its utensils.
Then the Chaldeans burned God's temple. They tore down Jerusalem's wall, burned all its palaces, and destroyed all its valuable articles.
This fulfilled the word of the LORD through Jeremiah, and the land enjoyed its Sabbath rest all the days of the desolation until seventy years were fulfilled.
Let it be known to the king that the Jews who came from you have returned to us at Jerusalem. They are rebuilding that rebellious and evil city, finishing its walls, and repairing its foundations.
Let it now be known to the king that if that city is rebuilt and its walls are finished, they will not pay tribute, duty, or land tax, and the royal revenue[fn] will suffer.
that a search should be made in your predecessors' record books. In these record books you will discover and verify that the city is a rebellious city, harmful to kings and provinces. There have been revolts in it since ancient times. That is why this city was destroyed.
We advise the king that if this city is rebuilt and its walls are finished, you will not have any possession west of the Euphrates.
Though we are slaves, our God has not abandoned us in our slavery. He has extended grace to us in the presence of the Persian kings, giving us relief, so that we can rebuild the house of our God and repair its ruins, to give us a wall in Judah and Jerusalem.
They said to me, “The remnant in the province, who survived the exile, are in great trouble and disgrace. Jerusalem's wall has been broken down, and its gates have been burned.”
and replied to the king, “May the king live forever! Why should I[fn] not be sad when the city where my ancestors are buried lies in ruins and its gates have been destroyed by fire? ”
I went out at night through the Valley Gate toward the Serpent's[fn] Well and the Dung Gate, and I inspected the walls of Jerusalem that had been broken down and its gates that had been destroyed by fire.
So I said to them, “You see the trouble we are in. Jerusalem lies in ruins and its gates have been burned. Come, let's rebuild Jerusalem's wall, so that we will no longer be a disgrace.”
The high priest Eliashib and his fellow priests began rebuilding the Sheep Gate. They dedicated it and installed its doors. After building the wall to the Tower of the Hundred and the Tower of Hananel, they dedicated it.
The sons of Hassenaah built the Fish Gate. They built it with beams and installed its doors, bolts, and bars.
Joiada son of Paseah and Meshullam son of Besodeiah repaired the Old[fn] Gate. They built it with beams and installed its doors, bolts, and bars.
Hanun and the inhabitants of Zanoah repaired the Valley Gate. They rebuilt it and installed its doors, bolts, and bars, and repaired five hundred yards[fn] of the wall to the Dung Gate.
Malchijah son of Rechab, ruler of the district of Beth-haccherem, repaired the Dung Gate. He rebuilt it and installed its doors, bolts, and bars.
Here we are today,
slaves in the land you gave our ancestors
so that they could enjoy its fruit and its goodness.
Here we are — slaves in it!
Zanoah and Adullam with their settlements;
in Lachish with its fields and Azekah and its surrounding villages.
So they settled from Beer-sheba to Hinnom Valley.
The second thanksgiving procession went to the left, and I followed it with half the people along the top of the wall, past the Tower of the Ovens to the Broad Wall,
to bring Queen Vashti before him with her royal crown. He wanted to show off her beauty to the people and the officials, because she was very beautiful.
“Before this day is over, the noble women of Persia and Media who hear about the queen's act will say the same thing to all the king's officials, resulting in more contempt and fury.
“If it meets the king's approval, he should personally issue a royal decree. Let it be recorded in the laws of the Persians and the Medes, so that it cannot be revoked: Vashti is not to enter King Ahasuerus's presence, and her royal position is to be given to another woman who is more worthy than she.
Mordecai was the legal guardian of his cousin[fn] Hadassah (that is, Esther), because she had no father or mother. The young woman had a beautiful figure and was extremely good-looking. When her father and mother died, Mordecai had adopted her as his own daughter.
The young woman pleased him and gained his favor so that he accelerated the process of the beauty treatments and the special diet that she received. He assigned seven hand-picked female servants to her from the palace and transferred her and her servants to the harem's best quarters.
Esther did not reveal her ethnicity or her family background, because Mordecai had ordered her not to make them known.
Esther still did not reveal her family background or her ethnicity, as Mordecai had directed. She obeyed Mordecai's orders, as she always had while he raised her.
Esther summoned Hathach, one of the king's eunuchs who attended her, and dispatched him to Mordecai to learn what he was doing and why.[fn]
On the third day, Esther dressed in her royal clothing and stood in the inner courtyard of the palace facing it. The king was sitting on his royal throne in the royal courtroom,[fn] facing its entrance.
As soon as the king saw Queen Esther standing in the courtyard, she gained favor with him. The king extended the gold scepter in his hand toward Esther, and she approached and touched the tip of the scepter.
It would still bring me comfort,
and I would leap for joy in unrelenting pain
that I have not denied[fn] the words of the Holy One.
The wicked are those who rebel against the light.
They do not recognize its ways
or stay on its paths.
Food may come from the earth,
but below the surface the earth is transformed as by fire.
Gold and glass do not compare with it,
and articles of fine gold cannot be exchanged for it.
if I have consumed its produce without payment
or shown contempt for its tenants,[fn]
Indeed, he lured you from the jaws[fn] of distress
to a spacious and unconfined place.
Your table was spread with choice food.
Who fixed its dimensions? Certainly you know!
Who stretched a measuring line across it?
She treats her young harshly, as if they were not her own,
with no fear that her labor may have been in vain.
In her chamber, the royal daughter is all glorious,
her clothing embroidered with gold.
In colorful garments she is led to the king;
after her, the virgins, her companions, are brought to you.
They have venom like the venom of a snake,
like the deaf cobra that stops up its ears,
You silence the roar of the seas,
the roar of their waves,
and the tumult of the nations.
You soften it with showers and bless its growth,
soaking its furrows and leveling its ridges.
“When the earth and all its inhabitants shake,
I am the one who steadies its pillars.Selah
Then they would not be like their ancestors,
a stubborn and rebellious generation,
a generation whose heart was not loyal
and whose spirit was not faithful to God.
The mountains were covered by its shade,
and the mighty cedars[fn] with its branches.
Even a sparrow finds a home,
and a swallow, a nest for herself
where she places her young —
near your altars, LORD of Armies,
my King and my God.
The heavens are yours; the earth also is yours.
The world and everything in it — you founded them.
for the administration of justice will again be righteous,
and all the upright in heart will follow[fn] it.
Let the heavens be glad and the earth rejoice;
let the sea and all that fills it resound.
She is a tree of life to those who embrace her,
and those who hold on to her are happy.
So it is with the one who sleeps with
another man's wife;
no one who touches her will go unpunished.
A wife of noble character[fn] is her husband's crown,
but a wife who causes shame
is like rottenness in his bones.
Every wise woman builds her house,
but a foolish one tears it down with her own hands.
The wealth of the rich is his fortified city;
in his imagination it is like a high wall.
Death and life are in the power of the tongue,
and those who love it will eat its fruit.
Whoever tends a fig tree will eat its fruit,
and whoever looks after his master will be honored.
She is not afraid for her household when it snows,
for all in her household are doubly clothed.[fn]
Give her the reward of her labor,[fn]
and let her works praise her at the city gates.
When good things increase, the ones who consume them multiply; what, then, is the profit to the owner, except to gaze at them with his eyes?
because wisdom is protection as silver is protection;
but the advantage of knowledge
is that wisdom preserves the life of its owner.
And I find more bitter than death the woman who is a trap: her heart a net and her hands chains. The one who pleases God will escape her, but the sinner will be captured by her.
No one has authority over the wind[fn] to restrain it, and there is no authority over the day of death; no one is discharged during battle, and wickedness will not allow those who practice it to escape.
The fig tree ripens its figs;
the blossoming vines give off their fragrance.
Arise, my darling.
Come away, my beautiful one.
But my dove, my virtuous one, is unique;
she is the favorite of her mother,
perfect to the one who gave her birth.
Women see her and declare her fortunate;
queens and concubines also, and they sing her praises:
Who is this coming up from the wilderness,
leaning on the one she loves?
I awakened you under the apricot tree.
There your mother conceived you;
there she conceived and gave you birth.
Set me as a seal on your heart,
as a seal on your arm.
For love is as strong as death;
jealousy is as unrelenting as Sheol.
Love's flames are fiery flames —
an almighty flame![fn]
Then the LORD will create a cloud of smoke by day and a glowing flame of fire by night over the entire site of Mount Zion and over its assemblies. For there will be a canopy over all the glory,[fn]
Therefore Sheol enlarges its throat
and opens wide its enormous jaws,
and down go Zion's dignitaries, her masses,
her crowds, and those who celebrate in her!
Though a tenth will remain in the land,
it will be burned again.
Like the terebinth or the oak
that leaves a stump when felled,
the holy seed is the stump.
“‘Let's go up against Judah, terrorize it, and conquer it for ourselves. Then we can install Tabeel's son as king in it.' ”
The dominion will be vast,
and its prosperity will never end.
He will reign on the throne of David
and over his kingdom,
to establish and sustain it
with justice and righteousness from now on and forever.
The zeal of the LORD of Armies will accomplish this.
“and as I did to Samaria and its worthless images
will I not also do to Jerusalem and its idols? ”
“Cry out and sing, citizen of Zion,
for the Holy One of Israel is among you
in his greatness.”
Look, the day of the LORD is coming —
cruel, with fury and burning anger —
to make the earth a desolation
and to destroy its sinners.
Indeed, the stars of the sky and its constellations[fn]
will not give their light.
The sun will be dark when it rises,
and the moon will not shine.
Therefore I will make the heavens tremble,
and the earth will shake from its foundations
at the wrath of the LORD of Armies,
on the day of his burning anger.
In its streets they wear sackcloth;
on its rooftops and in its public squares everyone wails,
falling down and weeping.
Heshbon and Elealeh cry out;
their voices are heard as far away as Jahaz.
Therefore the soldiers of Moab cry out,
and they tremble.
The Waters of Nimrim are desolate;
the grass is withered, the foliage is gone,
and the vegetation has vanished.
For their cry echoes
throughout the territory of Moab.
Their wailing reaches Eglaim;
their wailing reaches Beer-elim.
For Heshbon's terraced vineyards
and the grapevines of Sibmah have withered.
The rulers of the nations
have trampled its choice vines
that reached as far as Jazer
and spread to the desert.
Their shoots spread out
and reached the sea.
When Moab appears
and tires himself out on the high place
and comes to his sanctuary to pray,
it will do him no good.
On that day there will be an altar to the LORD in the center of the land of Egypt and a pillar to the LORD near her border.
“Look, riders come —
horsemen in pairs.”
And he answered, saying,
“Babylon has fallen, has fallen.
All the images of her gods
have been shattered on the ground.”
Who planned this against Tyre,
the bestower of crowns,
whose traders are princes,
whose merchants are the honored ones of the earth?
He stretched out his hand over the sea;
he made kingdoms tremble.
The LORD has commanded
that the Canaanite fortresses be destroyed.
Look at the land of the Chaldeans —
a people who no longer exist.
Assyria destined it for desert creatures.
They set up their siege towers
and stripped its palaces.
They made it a ruin.
But her profits and wages will be dedicated to the LORD. They will not be stored or saved, for her profit will go to those who live in the LORD's presence, to provide them with ample food and sacred clothing.
Look, the LORD is stripping the earth bare
and making it desolate.
He will twist its surface and scatter its inhabitants:
The earth staggers like a drunkard
and sways like a hut.
Earth's rebellion weighs it down,
and it falls, never to rise again.
As a pregnant woman about to give birth
writhes and cries out in her pains,
so we were before you, LORD.
For look, the LORD is coming from his place
to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity.
The earth will reveal the blood shed on it
and will no longer conceal her slain.
I am not angry.
If only there were thorns and briers for me to battle,
I would trample them
and burn them to the ground.
Therefore the Lord GOD said:
“Look, I have laid a stone in Zion,
a tested stone,
a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation;
the one who believes will be unshakable.[fn]
When he has leveled its surface,
does he not then scatter black cumin and sow cumin?
He plants wheat in rows and barley in plots,
with spelt as their border.
I will oppress Ariel,
and there will be mourning and crying,
and she will be to me like an Ariel.
“Its collapse will be like the shattering
of a potter's jar, crushed to pieces,
so that not even a fragment of pottery
will be found among its shattered remains —
no fragment large enough to take fire from a hearth
or scoop water from a cistern.”
For this is what the LORD said to me:
As a lion or young lion growls over its prey
when a band of shepherds is called out against it,
and it is not terrified by their shouting
or subdued by their noise,
so the LORD of Armies will come down
to fight on Mount Zion
and on its hill.
Look at Zion, the city of our festival times.
Your eyes will see Jerusalem,
a peaceful pasture, a tent that does not wander;
its tent pegs will not be pulled up
nor will any of its cords be loosened.
Edom's streams will be turned into pitch,
her soil into sulfur;
her land will become burning pitch.
It will never go out — day or night.
Its smoke will go up forever.
It will be desolate, from generation to generation;
no one will pass through it forever and ever.
Her palaces will be overgrown with thorns;
her fortified cities, with thistles and briers.
She will become a dwelling for jackals,
an abode[fn] for ostriches.
Sand partridges[fn] will make their nests there;
they will lay and hatch their eggs
and will gather their broods under their shadows.
Indeed, the birds of prey will gather there,
each with its mate.
He has cast the lot for them;
his hand allotted their portion with a measuring line.
They will possess it forever;
they will dwell in it from generation to generation.
A road will be there and a way;
it will be called the Holy Way.
The unclean will not travel on it,
but it will be for the one who walks the path.
Fools will not wander on it.
Lord, by such things people live,
and in every one of them my spirit finds life;
you have restored me to health
and let me live.
“Speak tenderly to[fn] Jerusalem,
and announce to her
that her time of hard service is over,
her iniquity has been pardoned,
and she has received from the LORD's hand
double for all her sins.”
I brought[fn] you from the ends of the earth
and called you from its farthest corners.
I said to you: You are my servant;
I have chosen you; I haven't rejected you.
This is what God, the LORD, says —
who created the heavens and stretched them out,
who spread out the earth and what comes from it,
who gives breath to the people on it
and spirit to those who walk on it —
Let the desert and its cities shout,
the settlements where Kedar dwells cry aloud.
Let the inhabitants of Sela sing for joy;
let them cry out from the mountaintops.
who confirms the message of his servant
and fulfills the counsel of his messengers;
who says to Jerusalem, “She will be inhabited,”
and to the cities of Judah, “They will be rebuilt,”
and I will restore her ruins;
“I made the earth,
and created humans on it.
It was my hands that stretched out the heavens,
and I commanded everything in them.
“So now hear this, lover of luxury,
who sits securely,
who says to herself,
‘I am, and there is no one else.
I will never be a widow
or know the loss of children.'
“Can a woman forget her nursing child,
or lack compassion for the child of her womb?
Even if these forget,
yet I will not forget you.
For the LORD will comfort Zion;
he will comfort all her waste places,
and he will make her wilderness like Eden,
and her desert like the garden of the LORD.
Joy and gladness will be found in her,
thanksgiving and melodious song.
For I am the LORD your God
who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar —
his name is the LORD of Armies.
Leave, leave, go out from there!
Do not touch anything unclean;
go out from her, purify yourselves,
you who carry the vessels of the LORD.
For as the earth produces its growth,
and as a garden enables what is sown to spring up,
so the Lord GOD will cause righteousness and praise
to spring up before all the nations.
Who has heard of such a thing?
Who has seen such things?
Can a land be born in one day
or a nation be delivered in an instant?
Yet as soon as Zion was in labor,
she gave birth to her sons.
Be glad for Jerusalem and rejoice over her,
all who love her.
Rejoice greatly with her,
all who mourn over her —
so that you may nurse and be satisfied
from her comforting breast
and drink deeply and delight yourselves
from her glorious breasts.
“Indeed, I am about to summon all the clans and kingdoms of the north.”
This is the LORD's declaration.
They will come, and each king will set up his throne
at the entrance to Jerusalem's gates.
They will attack all her surrounding walls
and all the other cities of Judah.
How can you protest, “I am not defiled;
I have not followed the Baals”?
Look at your behavior in the valley;
acknowledge what you have done.
You are a swift young camel
twisting and turning on her way,
Can a young woman forget her jewelry
or a bride her wedding sash?
Yet my people have forgotten me
for countless days.
“I thought, ‘After she has done all these things, she will return to me.' But she didn't return, and her treacherous sister Judah saw it.
“I[fn] observed that it was because unfaithful Israel had committed adultery that I had sent her away and had given her a certificate of divorce. Nevertheless, her treacherous sister Judah was not afraid but also went and prostituted herself.
“Indifferent to[fn] her prostitution, she defiled the land and committed adultery with stones and trees.
“Yet in spite of all this, her treacherous sister Judah didn't return to me with all her heart — only in pretense.”
This is the LORD's declaration.
“Because of this, the earth will mourn;
the skies above will grow dark.
I have spoken; I have planned,
and I will not relent or turn back from it.”
I hear a cry like a woman in labor,
a cry of anguish like one bearing her first child.
The cry of Daughter Zion gasping for breath,
stretching out her hands:
“Woe is me, for my life is weary
because of the murderers! ”
Roam through the streets of Jerusalem.
Investigate;[fn]
search in her squares.
If you find one person,
any who acts justly,
who pursues faithfulness,
then I will forgive her.
Go up among her vineyard terraces and destroy them,
but do not finish them off.
Prune away her shoots,
for they do not belong to the LORD.
“Do you not fear me?
This is the LORD's declaration.
Do you not tremble before me,
the one who set the sand as the boundary of the sea,
an enduring barrier that it cannot cross?
The waves surge, but they cannot prevail.
They roar but cannot pass over it.
For this is what the LORD of Armies says:
Cut down the trees;
raise a siege ramp against Jerusalem.
This city must be punished.
There is nothing but oppression within her.
As a well gushes out its water,
so she pours out her evil.[fn]
Violence and destruction resound in her.
Sickness and wounds keep coming to my attention.
“Even storks in the sky
know their seasons.
Turtledoves, swallows, and cranes[fn]
are aware of their migration,
but my people do not know
the requirements of the LORD.
From Dan, the snorting of horses is heard.
At the sound of the neighing of mighty steeds,
the whole land quakes.
They come to devour the land and everything in it,
the city and all its residents.
Now hear the word of the LORD, you women.
Pay attention to[fn] the words from his mouth.
Teach your daughters a lament
and one another a dirge,
“The LORD named you
a flourishing olive tree,
beautiful with well-formed fruit.
He has set fire to it,
and its branches are consumed[fn]
with the sound of a mighty tumult.
I have abandoned my house;
I have deserted my inheritance.
I have handed the love of my life
over to her enemies.
My inheritance has behaved toward me
like a lion in the forest.
She has roared against me.
Therefore, I hate her.
Is my inheritance like a hyena[fn] to me?
Are birds of prey circling her?
Go, gather all the wild animals;
bring them to devour her.
Can the Cushite change his skin,
or a leopard his spots?
If so, you might be able to do what is good,
you who are instructed in evil.
Judah mourns;
her city gates languish.
Her people are on the ground in mourning;
Jerusalem's cry rises up.
Their nobles send their servants[fn] for water.
They go to the cisterns;
they find no water;
their containers return empty.
They are ashamed and humiliated;
they cover their heads.
“The mother of seven grew faint;
she breathed her last breath.
Her sun set while it was still day;
she was ashamed and humiliated.
The rest of them I will give over to the sword
in the presence of their enemies.”
This is the LORD's declaration.
“But if you do not listen to me to keep the Sabbath day holy by not carrying a load while entering the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day, I will set fire to its gates, and it will consume the citadels of Jerusalem and not be extinguished.' ”
They have made their land a horror,
a perpetual object of scorn;[fn]
all who pass by it will be appalled
and shake their heads.
“I will make this city desolate, an object of scorn. Everyone who passes by it will be appalled and scoff because of all its wounds.
“This is what the LORD of Armies, the God of Israel, says: ‘I am about to bring on this city — and on all its cities — every disaster that I spoke against it, for they have become obstinate, not obeying my words.' ”
“I will give away all the wealth of this city, all its products and valuables. Indeed, I will hand all the treasures of the kings of Judah over to their enemies. They will plunder them, seize them, and carry them off to Babylon.
I will punish you according to what you have done —
this is the LORD's declaration.
I will kindle a fire in your forest
that will consume everything around it.' ”
“I am going to send for all the families of the north' — this is the LORD's declaration — ‘and send for my servant Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and I will bring them against this land, against its residents, and against all these surrounding nations, and I will completely destroy them and make them an example of horror and scorn, and ruins forever.
“I will bring on that land all my words I have spoken against it, all that is written in this book that Jeremiah prophesied against all the nations.
“Pursue the well-being[fn] of the city I have deported you to. Pray to the LORD on its behalf, for when it thrives, you will thrive.”
“for look, the days are coming” — this is the LORD's declaration — “when I will restore the fortunes[fn] of my people Israel and Judah,” says the LORD. “I will restore them to the land I gave to their ancestors and they will possess it.”
This is what the LORD says:
I will certainly restore the fortunes[fn] of Jacob's tents
and show compassion on his dwellings.
Every city will be rebuilt on its mound;
every citadel will stand on its proper site.
This is what the LORD says:
A voice was heard in Ramah,
a lament with bitter weeping —
Rachel weeping for her children,
refusing to be comforted for her children
because they are no more.
“This is what the LORD says:
The one who gives the sun for light by day,
the fixed order of moon and stars for light by night,
who stirs up the sea and makes its waves roar —
the LORD of Armies is his name:
“A measuring line will once again stretch out straight to the hill of Gareb and then turn toward Goah.
“You must not build a house or sow seed or plant a vineyard. Those things are not for you. Rather, you must live in tents your whole life, so you may live a long time on the soil where you stay as a resident alien.'
“You are to proclaim concerning King Jehoiakim of Judah, ‘This is what the LORD says: You have burned the scroll, asking, “Why have you written on it that the king of Babylon will certainly come and destroy this land and cause it to be without people or animals? ”
“then the sword you fear will overtake you there in the land of Egypt, and the famine you are worried about will follow on your heels[fn] there to Egypt, and you will die there.
Even her mercenaries among her
are like stall-fed calves.
They too will turn back;
together they will flee;
they will not take their stand,
for the day of their calamity is coming on them,
the time of their punishment.
They will cut down her forest —
this is the LORD's declaration —
though it is dense,
for they are more numerous than locusts;
they cannot be counted.
The LORD of Armies, the God of Israel, says, “I am about to punish Amon, god of Thebes, along with Pharaoh, Egypt, her gods, and her kings — Pharaoh and those trusting in him.
This is what the LORD says:
Look, water is rising from the north
and becoming an overflowing wadi.
It will overflow the land and everything in it,
the cities and their inhabitants.
The people will cry out,
and every inhabitant of the land will wail.
“On all the rooftops of Moab and in her public squares, everyone is mourning because I have shattered Moab like a jar no one wants.” This is the LORD's declaration.
“How broken it is! They wail! How Moab has turned his back! He is ashamed. Moab will become a laughingstock and a shock to all those around him.”
He who flees from the panic will fall in the pit,
and he who climbs from the pit
will be captured in the trap,
for I will bring against Moab
the year of their punishment.
This is the LORD's declaration.
Therefore look, the days are coming —
this is the LORD's declaration —
when I will make the shout of battle heard
against Rabbah of the Ammonites.
It will become a desolate mound,
and its surrounding villages will be set on fire.
Israel will dispossess their dispossessors,
says the LORD.
Why do you boast about your valleys,
your flowing valley,[fn]
you faithless daughter —
you who trust in your treasures
and say, “Who can attack me? ”
“For by myself I have sworn” — this is the LORD's declaration — “Bozrah[fn] will become a desolation, a disgrace, a ruin, and an example for cursing, and all its surrounding cities will become ruins forever.”
“As when Sodom and Gomorrah were overthrown along with their neighbors,” says the LORD, “no one will live there; no human being will stay in it even temporarily.
“Look, it will be like a lion coming from the thickets[fn] of the Jordan to the watered grazing land. I will chase Edom away from her land in a flash. I will appoint whoever is chosen for her. For who is like me? Who will issue me a summons? Who is the shepherd who can stand against me? ”
Look! It will be like an eagle soaring upward, then swooping down and spreading its wings over Bozrah. In that day the hearts of Edom's warriors will be like the heart of a woman with contractions.
Damascus has become weak;
she has turned to run;
panic has gripped her.
Distress and labor pains have seized her
like a woman in labor.
For a nation from the north will attack her;
it will make her land desolate.
No one will be living in it —
both people and animals will escape.[fn]
Because of the LORD's wrath,
she will not be inhabited;
she will become a desolation, every bit of her.
Everyone who passes through Babylon
will be appalled
and scoff because of all her wounds.
Raise a war cry against her on every side!
She has thrown up her hands in surrender;
her defense towers have fallen;
her walls are demolished.
Since this is the LORD's vengeance,
take your vengeance on her;
as she has done, do the same to her.
Come against her from the most distant places.[fn]
Open her granaries;
pile her up like mounds of grain
and completely destroy her.
Leave her no survivors.
Put all her young bulls to the sword;
let them go down to the slaughter.
Woe to them because their day has come,
the time of their punishment.
Summon the archers to Babylon,
all who string the bow;
camp all around her; let none escape.
Repay her according to her deeds;
just as she has done, do the same to her,
for she has acted arrogantly against the LORD,
against the Holy One of Israel.
Therefore, her young men will fall
in her public squares;
all the warriors will perish in that day.
This is the LORD's declaration.
The arrogant will stumble and fall
with no one to pick him up.
I will set fire to his cities,
and it will consume everything around him.
A sword is over the Chaldeans —
this is the LORD's declaration —
against those who live in Babylon,
against her officials, and against her sages.
A sword is against the diviners,
and they will act foolishly.
A sword is against her heroic warriors,
and they will be terrified.
A sword is against his horses and chariots
and against all the foreigners among them,
and they will be like women.
A sword is against her treasuries,
and they will be plundered.
A drought will come on her waters,
and they will be dried up.
For it is a land of carved images,
and they go mad because of terrifying things.[fn]
I will send strangers to Babylon
who will scatter her and strip her land bare,
for they will come against her
from every side in the day of disaster.
Don't let the archer string his bow;
don't let him put on[fn] his armor.
Don't spare her young men;
completely destroy her entire army!
Those who were slain will fall in the land of the Chaldeans,
those who were pierced through, in her streets.
Leave Babylon;
save your lives, each of you!
Don't perish because of her guilt.
For this is the time of the LORD's vengeance —
he will pay her what she deserves.
Babylon was a gold cup in the LORD's hand,
making the whole earth drunk.
The nations drank her wine;
therefore, the nations go mad.
Suddenly Babylon fell and was shattered.
Wail for her;
get balm for her wound —
perhaps she can be healed.
We tried to heal Babylon,
but she could not be healed.
Abandon her!
Let each of us go to his own land,
for her judgment extends to the sky
and reaches as far as the clouds.
You who reside by abundant water,
rich in treasures,
your end has come,
your life thread is cut.
Babylon's warriors have stopped fighting;
they sit in their strongholds.
Their might is exhausted;
they have become like women.
Babylon's homes have been set ablaze,
her gate bars are shattered.
For this is what the LORD of Armies, the God of Israel, says:
Daughter Babylon is like a threshing floor
at the time it is trampled.
In just a little while her harvest time will come.
Therefore, this is what the LORD says:
I am about to champion your cause
and take vengeance on your behalf;
I will dry up her sea
and make her fountain run dry.
Her cities have become a desolation,
an arid desert,
a land where no one lives,
where no human being even passes through.
I will punish Bel in Babylon.
I will make him vomit what he swallowed.
The nations will no longer stream to him;
even Babylon's wall will fall.
Therefore, look, the days are coming —
this is the LORD's declaration —
when I will punish her carved images,
and the wounded will groan
throughout her land.
Even if Babylon should ascend to the heavens
and fortify her tall fortresses,
destroyers will come against her from me.
This is the LORD's declaration.
For the LORD is going to devastate Babylon;
he will silence her mighty voice.
Their waves roar like a huge torrent;
the tumult of their voice resounds,
for a destroyer is coming against her,
against Babylon.
Her warriors will be captured,
their bows shattered,
for the LORD is a God of retribution;
he will certainly repay.
I will make her princes and sages drunk,
along with her governors, officials, and warriors.
Then they will fall asleep forever
and never wake up.
This is the King's declaration;
the LORD of Armies is his name.
This is what the LORD of Armies says:
Babylon's thick walls will be totally demolished,
and her high gates set ablaze.
The peoples will have labored for nothing;
the nations will weary themselves only to feed the fire.
She weeps bitterly during the night,
with tears on her cheeks.
There is no one to offer her comfort,
not one from all her lovers.[fn]
All her friends have betrayed her;
they have become her enemies.
Judah has gone into exile
following[fn] affliction and harsh slavery;
she lives among the nations
but finds no place to rest.
All her pursuers have overtaken her
in narrow places.
The roads to Zion mourn,
for no one comes to the appointed festivals.
All her gates are deserted;
her priests groan,
her young women grieve,
and she herself is bitter.
Her adversaries have become her masters;
her enemies are at ease,
for the LORD has made her suffer
because of her many transgressions.
Her children have gone away
as captives before the adversary.
All the splendor has vanished
from Daughter Zion.
Her leaders are like stags
that find no pasture;
they stumble away exhausted
before the hunter.
During the days of her affliction and homelessness
Jerusalem remembers all her precious belongings
that were hers in days of old.
When her people fell into the adversary's hand,
she had no one to help.
The adversaries looked at her,
laughing over her downfall.
Jerusalem has sinned grievously;
therefore, she has become an object of scorn.[fn]
All who honored her now despise her,
for they have seen her nakedness.
She herself groans and turns away.
Her uncleanness stains her skirts.
She never considered her end.
Her downfall was astonishing;
there was no one to comfort her.
LORD, look on my affliction,
for the enemy boasts.
The adversary has seized
all her precious belongings.
She has even seen the nations
enter her sanctuary —
those you had forbidden
to enter your assembly.
All her people groan
while they search for bread.
They have traded their precious belongings for food
in order to stay alive.
LORD, look and see
how I have become despised.
Zion stretches out her hands;
there is no one to comfort her.
The LORD has issued a decree against Jacob
that his neighbors should be his adversaries.
Jerusalem has become
something impure among them.
Without compassion the Lord has swallowed up
all the dwellings of Jacob.
In his wrath he has demolished
the fortified cities of Daughter Judah.
He brought them to the ground
and defiled the kingdom and its leaders.
The Lord is like an enemy;
he has swallowed up Israel.
He swallowed up all its palaces
and destroyed its fortified cities.
He has multiplied mourning and lamentation
within Daughter Judah.
The Lord has rejected his altar,
repudiated his sanctuary;
he has handed the walls of her palaces
over to the enemy.
They have raised a shout in the house of the LORD
as on the day of an appointed festival.
Zion's gates have fallen to the ground;
he has destroyed and shattered the bars on her gates.
Her king and her leaders live among the nations,
instruction[fn] is no more,
and even her prophets receive
no vision from the LORD.
Her dignitaries were brighter than snow,
whiter than milk;
their bodies[fn] were more ruddy than coral,
their appearance like lapis lazuli.
The LORD has exhausted his wrath,
poured out his burning anger;
he has ignited a fire in Zion,
and it has consumed her foundations.
Yet it happened because of the sins of her prophets
and the iniquities of her priests,
who shed the blood of the righteous within her.
Blind, they stumbled in the streets,
defiled by this blood,
so that no one dared
to touch their garments.
“You are to burn a third of it in the city when the days of the siege have ended; you are to take a third and slash it with the sword all around the city; and you are to scatter a third to the wind, for I will draw a sword to chase after them.
“Take some more of them, throw them into the fire, and burn them in it. A fire will spread from it to the whole house of Israel.
“This is what the Lord GOD says: I have set this Jerusalem in the center of the nations, with countries all around her.
“She has rebelled against my ordinances with more wickedness than the nations, and against my statutes more than the countries that surround her. For her people have rejected my ordinances and have not walked in my statutes.
“Pass throughout the city of Jerusalem,” the LORD said to him, “and put a mark on the foreheads of the men who sigh and groan over all the detestable practices committed in it.”
“ ‘Therefore, this is what the Lord GOD says: The slain you have put within it are the meat, and the city is the pot, but I[fn] will take you out of it.
“I will take you out of the city and hand you over to foreigners; I will execute judgments against you.
“The city will not be a pot for you, and you will not be the meat within it. I will judge you at the border of Israel,
“When they arrive there, they will remove all its abhorrent acts and detestable practices from it.
“You are to say, ‘I am a sign for you. Just as I have done, it will be done to them; they will go into exile, into captivity.'
“Then say to the people of the land, ‘This is what the Lord GOD says about the residents of Jerusalem in the land of Israel: They will eat their bread with anxiety and drink their water in dread, for their[fn][fn] land will be stripped of everything in it because of the violence of all who live there.
“Son of man, suppose a land sins against me by acting faithlessly, and I stretch out my hand against it to cut off its supply of bread, to send famine through it, and to wipe out both people and animals from it.
“Even if these three men — Noah, Daniel, and Job — were in it, they would rescue only themselves by their righteousness.” This is the declaration of the Lord GOD.
“Even if these three men were in it, as I live” — the declaration of the Lord GOD — “they could not rescue their sons or daughters. They alone would be rescued, but the land would be desolate.
“Or suppose I bring a sword against that land and say, ‘Let a sword pass through it,' so that I wipe out both people and animals from it.
“Even if these three men were in it, as I live” — the declaration of the Lord GOD — “they could not rescue their sons or daughters, but they alone would be rescued.
“Or suppose I send a plague into that land and pour out my wrath on it with bloodshed to wipe out both people and animals from it.
“Even if Noah, Daniel, and Job were in it, as I live” — the declaration of the Lord GOD — “they could not rescue their son or daughter. They would rescue only themselves by their righteousness.
“For this is what the Lord GOD says: How much worse will it be when I send my four devastating judgments against Jerusalem — sword, famine, dangerous animals, and plague — in order to wipe out both people and animals from it!
“Even so, there will be survivors left in it, sons and daughters who will be brought out. Indeed, they will come out to you, and you will observe their conduct and actions. Then you will be consoled about the devastation I have brought on Jerusalem, about all I have brought on it.
“Can wood be taken from it to make something useful? Or can anyone make a peg from it to hang things on?
“In fact, it is put into the fire as fuel. The fire devours both of its ends, and the middle is charred. Can it be useful for anything?
You are the daughter of your mother, who despised her husband and children. You are the sister of your sisters, who despised their husbands and children. Your mother was a Hethite and your father an Amorite.
Your older sister was Samaria, who lived with her daughters to the north of you, and your younger sister was Sodom, who lived with her daughters to the south of you.
“ ‘As I live — the declaration of the Lord GOD — your sister Sodom and her daughters have not behaved as you and your daughters have.
“Now this was the iniquity of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters had pride, plenty of food, and comfortable security, but didn't support[fn] the poor and needy.
“ ‘I will restore their fortunes, the fortunes of Sodom and her daughters and those of Samaria and her daughters. I will also restore[fn] your fortunes among them,
“As for your sisters, Sodom and her daughters and Samaria and her daughters will return to their former state. You and your daughters will also return to your former state.
“before your wickedness was exposed? It was like the time you were scorned by the daughters of Aram[fn] and all those around her, and by the daughters of the Philistines — those who treated you with contempt from every side.
“It sprouted and became a spreading vine, low in height with its branches turned toward him, yet its roots stayed under it. So it became a vine, produced branches, and sent out shoots.
“ ‘But there was another huge eagle with powerful wings and thick plumage. And this vine bent its roots toward him! It stretched out its branches to him from the plot where it was planted, so that he might water it.
“You are to say, ‘This is what the Lord GOD says: Will it flourish? Will he not tear out its roots and strip off its fruit so that it shrivels? All its fresh leaves will wither! Great strength and many people will not be needed to pull it from its roots.
“Even though it is planted, will it flourish? Won't it wither completely when the east wind strikes it? It will wither on the plot where it sprouted.' ”
“Now say to that rebellious house, ‘Don't you know what these things mean? ' Tell them, ‘The king of Babylon came to Jerusalem, took its king and officials, and brought them back with him to Babylon.
“and say:
What was your mother? A lioness!
She lay down among the lions;
she reared her cubs among the young lions.
“She brought up one of her cubs,
and he became a young lion.
After he learned to tear prey,
he devoured people.
“When she saw that she waited in vain,
that her hope was lost,
she took another of her cubs
and made him a young lion.
“He devastated their strongholds[fn]
and destroyed their cities.
The land and everything in it shuddered
at the sound of his roaring.
“Your mother was like a vine in your vineyard,[fn]
planted by the water;
it was fruitful and full of branches
because of abundant water.
“It had strong branches, fit for the scepters of rulers;
its height towered among the clouds.[fn]
So it was conspicuous for its height
as well as its many branches.
“But it was uprooted in fury,
thrown to the ground,
and the east wind dried up its fruit.
Its strong branches were torn off and dried up;
fire consumed them.
“Fire has gone out from its main branch[fn]
and has devoured its fruit,
so that it no longer has a strong branch,
a scepter for ruling.
This is a lament and should be used as a lament.”
“Mark out a road that the sword can take to Rabbah of the Ammonites and to Judah into fortified Jerusalem.
“As for you, son of man, will you pass judgment? Will you pass judgment against the city of blood? Then explain all her detestable practices to her.
“You are to say, ‘This is what the Lord GOD says: A city that sheds blood within her walls so that her time of judgment has come and who makes idols for herself so that she is defiled!
“Yes, I will gather you together and blow on you with the fire of my fury, and you will be melted within the city.
“As silver is melted inside a furnace, so you will be melted inside the city. Then you will know that I, the LORD, have poured out my wrath on you.”
“The conspiracy of her prophets within her is[fn] like a roaring lion tearing its prey: they devour people, seize wealth and valuables, and multiply the widows within her.
“Her priests do violence to my instruction and profane my holy things. They make no distinction between the holy and the common, and they do not explain the difference between the clean and the unclean. They close their eyes to my Sabbaths, and I am profaned among them.
“Her officials within her are like wolves tearing their prey, shedding blood, and destroying lives in order to make profit dishonestly.
“Her prophets plaster for them with whitewash by seeing false visions and lying divinations, saying, ‘This is what the Lord GOD says,' when the LORD has not spoken.
“Oholah acted like a prostitute even though she was mine. She lusted after her lovers, the Assyrians: warriors
“She offered her sexual favors to them; all of them were the elite of Assyria. She defiled herself with all those she lusted after and with all their idols.
“She didn't give up her promiscuity that began in Egypt, when men slept with her in her youth, caressed her virgin nipples, and poured out their lust on her.
“They exposed her nakedness, seized her sons and daughters, and killed her with the sword. Since they executed judgment against her, she became notorious among women.
“Now her sister Oholibah saw this, but she was even more depraved in her lust than Oholah, and made her promiscuous acts worse than those of her sister.
“She lusted after the Assyrians: governors and prefects, warriors splendidly dressed, horsemen riding on steeds, all of them desirable young men.
“But she increased her promiscuity when she saw male figures carved on the wall, images of the Chaldeans, engraved in bright red,
“At the sight of them[fn] she lusted after them and sent messengers to them in Chaldea.
“Then the Babylonians came to her, to the bed of love, and defiled her with their lust. But after she was defiled by them, she turned away from them in disgust.
“When she flaunted her promiscuity and exposed her nakedness, I turned away from her in disgust just as I turned away from her sister.
“You will drink it and drain it;
then you will gnaw its broken pieces,
and tear your breasts.
For I have spoken.”
This is the declaration of the Lord GOD.
“You sat on a luxurious couch with a table spread before it, on which you had set my incense and oil.
“Take the choicest of the flock
and also pile up the fuel[fn] under it.
Bring it to a boil
and cook the bones in it.
“ ‘Therefore, this is what the Lord GOD says:
Woe to the city of bloodshed,
the pot that has corrosion inside it,
and its corrosion has not come out of it!
Empty it piece by piece;
lots should not be cast for its contents.
“For the blood she shed[fn] is still within her.
She put it out on the bare rock;
she didn't pour it on the ground
to cover it with dust.
“In order to stir up wrath and take vengeance,
I have put her blood on the bare rock,
so that it would not be covered.
“Set the empty pot on its coals
so that it becomes hot and its copper glows.
Then its impurity will melt inside it;
its corrosion will be consumed.
“It has frustrated every effort;[fn]
its thick corrosion will not come off.
Into the fire with its corrosion!
“therefore this is what the Lord GOD says: I will stretch out my hand against Edom and cut off both people and animals from it. I will make it a wasteland; they will fall by the sword from Teman to Dedan.
“therefore this is what the Lord GOD says: See, I am against you, Tyre! I will raise up many nations against you, just as the sea raises its waves.
“They will destroy the walls of Tyre and demolish her towers. I will scrape the soil from her and turn her into a bare rock.
“and her villages on the mainland will be slaughtered by the sword. Then they will know that I am the LORD.”
“They will live there securely, build houses, and plant vineyards. They will live securely when I execute judgments against all their neighbors who treat them with contempt. Then they will know that I am the LORD their God.' ”
“Therefore, this is what the Lord GOD says: I am going to give the land of Egypt to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, and he will carry off its wealth, seizing its spoil and taking its plunder. This will be his army's compensation.
A sword will come against Egypt,
and there will be anguish in Cush
when the slain fall in Egypt,
and its wealth is taken away,
and its foundations are demolished.
This is what the LORD says:
Those who support Egypt will fall,
and its proud strength will collapse.
From Migdol to Syene
they will fall within it by the sword.
This is the declaration of the Lord GOD.
“I will make the streams dry
and sell the land to evil men.
I will bring desolation
on the land and everything in it
by the hands of foreigners.
I, the LORD, have spoken.
“I will strengthen the arms of Babylon's king and place my sword in his hand. But I will break the arms of Pharaoh, and he will groan before him as a mortally wounded man.
“The waters caused it to grow;
the underground springs made it tall,
directing their rivers all around
the place where the tree was planted
and sending their channels
to all the trees of the field.
“ ‘This is what the Lord GOD says: I caused grieving on the day the cedar went down to Sheol. I closed off the underground deep because of it:[fn] I held back the rivers of the deep, and its abundant water was restrained. I made Lebanon mourn on account of it, and all the trees of the field fainted because of it.
“ ‘When I snuff you out,
I will cover the heavens
and darken their stars.
I will cover the sun with a cloud,
and the moon will not give its light.
“I will make your hordes fall
by the swords of warriors,
all of them ruthless men from the nations.
They will ravage Egypt's pride,
and all its hordes will be destroyed.
“I will slaughter all its cattle
that are beside many waters.
No human foot will churn them again,
and no cattle hooves will disturb them.
“When I make the land of Egypt a desolation,
so that it is emptied of everything in it,
when I strike down all who live there,
then they will know that I am the LORD.
“ ‘The daughters of the nations will chant that lament. They will chant it over Egypt and all its hordes. This is the declaration of the Lord GOD.' ”
“Son of man, wail over the hordes of Egypt and bring Egypt and the daughters of mighty nations down to the underworld,[fn] to be with those who descend to the Pit:
“But if you warn a wicked person to turn from his way and he doesn't turn from it, he will die for his iniquity, but you will have rescued yourself.
“I will make the land a desolate waste, and its proud strength will come to an end. The mountains of Israel will become desolate, with no one passing through.
“The trees of the field will yield their fruit, and the land will yield its produce; my flock will be secure in their land. They will know that I am the LORD when I break the bars of their yoke and rescue them from the power of those who enslave them.
“So the ruined cities will be filled with a flock of people, just as Jerusalem is filled with a flock of sheep for sacrifice[fn] during its appointed festivals. Then they will know that I am the LORD.' ”
“ ‘They will live in the land that I gave to my servant Jacob, where your ancestors lived. They will live in it forever with their children and grandchildren, and my servant David will be their prince forever.
Its three recesses on each side, its jambs, and its portico had the same measurements as the first gate: 87½ feet long and 43¾ feet wide.
Its windows, portico, and palm trees had the same measurements as those of the gate that faced east. Seven steps led up to the gate, and its portico was ahead of them.
Both the gate and its portico had windows all around, like the other windows. It was 87½ feet long and 43¾ feet wide.
Its recesses, jambs, and portico had the same measurements as the others. Both it and its portico had windows all around. It was 87½ feet long and 43¾ feet wide.
Its recesses, jambs, and portico had the same measurements as the others. Both it and its portico had windows all around. It was 87½ feet long and 43¾ feet wide.
as did its recesses, jambs, and portico. It also had windows all around. It was 87½ feet long and 43¾ feet wide.
There was a chamber whose door opened into the gate's portico.[fn] The burnt offering was to be washed there.
Next he measured the court. It was square, 175 feet long and 175 feet wide. The altar was in front of the temple.
The LORD said to me, “This gate will remain closed. It will not be opened, and no one will enter through it, because the LORD, the God of Israel, has entered through it. Therefore it will remain closed.
“When the people of the land come before the LORD at the appointed times,[fn] whoever enters by way of the north gate to worship is to go out by way of the south gate, and whoever enters by way of the south gate is to go out by way of the north gate. No one may return through the gate by which he entered, but is to go out by the opposite gate.
“Fishermen will stand beside it from En-gedi to En-eglaim.[fn] These will become places where nets are spread out to dry. Their fish will consist of many different kinds, like the fish of the Mediterranean Sea.
“These are the city's measurements:
1½ miles[fn] on the north side;
1½ miles on the south side;
1½ miles on the east side;
and 1½ miles on the west side.
“The remainder of the length alongside the holy donation will be 3⅓ miles to the east and 3⅓ miles to the west. It will run alongside the holy donation. Its produce will be food for the workers of the city.
“The remaining area on both sides of the holy donation and the city property will belong to the prince. He will own the land adjacent to the tribal portions, next to the 8⅓ miles of the donation as far as the eastern border and[fn] next to the 8⅓ miles of the donation as far as the western border. The holy donation and the sanctuary of the temple will be in the middle of it.
“The perimeter of the city will be six miles,[fn] and the name of the city from that day on will be The LORD Is There.”
“Your Majesty, as you were watching, suddenly a colossal statue appeared. That statue, tall and dazzling, was standing in front of you, and its appearance was terrifying.
“The head of the statue was pure gold, its chest and arms were silver, its stomach and thighs were bronze,
“and that the toes of the feet were partly iron and partly fired clay — part of the kingdom will be strong, and part will be brittle.
King Nebuchadnezzar made a gold statue, ninety feet high and nine feet wide.[fn] He set it up on the plain of Dura in the province of Babylon.
“Now the wise men and mediums were brought before me to read this inscription and make its interpretation known to me, but they could not give its interpretation.
“However, I have heard about you that you can give interpretations and solve problems. Therefore, if you can read this inscription and give me its interpretation, you will be clothed in purple, have a gold chain around your neck, and have the third highest position in the kingdom.”
Then Daniel answered the king, “You may keep your gifts and give your rewards to someone else; however, I will read the inscription for the king and make the interpretation known to him.
“The first was like a lion but had eagle's wings. I continued watching until its wings were torn off. It was lifted up from the ground, set on its feet like a man, and given a human mind.
“Suddenly, another beast appeared, a second one, that looked like a bear. It was raised up on one side, with three ribs in its mouth between its teeth. It was told, ‘Get up! Gorge yourself on flesh.'
“After this, while I was watching, suddenly another beast appeared. It was like a leopard with four wings of a bird on its back. It had four heads, and it was given dominion.
Listen closely,[fn] my God, and hear. Open your eyes and see our desolations and the city that bears your name. For we are not presenting our petitions before you based on our righteous acts, but based on your abundant compassion.
“In the place of the king of the South, one from her family[fn] will rise up, come against the army, and enter the fortress of the king of the North. He will take action against them and triumph.
She conceived again and gave birth to a daughter, and the LORD said to him:
Name her Lo-ruhamah,[fn]
for I will no longer have compassion
on the house of Israel.
I will certainly take them away.
Rebuke your mother; rebuke her.
For she is not my wife and I am not her husband.
Let her remove the promiscuous look from her face
and her adultery from between her breasts.
Otherwise, I will strip her naked
and expose her as she was on the day of her birth.
I will make her like a desert
and like a parched land,
and I will let her die of thirst.
I will have no compassion on her children
because they are the children of promiscuity.
Therefore, this is what I will do:
I will block her[fn] way with thorns;
I will enclose her with a wall,
so that she cannot find her paths.
She will pursue her lovers but not catch them;
she will look for them but not find them.
Then she will think,
“I will go back to my former husband,
for then it was better for me than now.”
Therefore, I will take back my grain in its time
and my new wine in its season;
I will take away my wool and linen,
which were to cover her nakedness.
Now I will expose her shame
in the sight of her lovers,
and no one will rescue her from my power.
I will put an end to all her celebrations:
her feasts, New Moons, and Sabbaths —
all her festivals.
I will devastate her vines and fig trees.
She thinks that these are her wages
that her lovers have given her.
I will turn them into a thicket,
and the wild animals will eat them.
And I will punish her for the days of the Baals,
to which she burned incense.
She put on her rings and her jewelry
and followed her lovers,
but she forgot me.
This is the LORD's declaration.
There I will give her vineyards back to her
and make the Valley of Achor[fn]
into a gateway of hope.
There she will respond as she did
in the days of her youth,
as in the day she came out of the land of Egypt.
For I will remove the names of the Baals
from her mouth;
they will no longer be remembered by their names.
A wind with its wings will carry them off,[fn]
and they will be ashamed of their sacrifices.
Israel is a lush[fn] vine;
it yields fruit for itself.
The more his fruit increased,
the more he increased the altars.
The better his land produced,
the better they made the sacred pillars.
Ephraim is a well-trained calf
that loves to thresh,
but I will place a yoke on[fn] her fine neck.
I will harness Ephraim;
Judah will plow;
Jacob will do the final plowing.
You have plowed wickedness and reaped injustice;
you have eaten the fruit of lies.
Because you have trusted in your own way[fn]
and in your large number of soldiers,
Samaria will bear her guilt
because she has rebelled against her God.
They will fall by the sword;
their children will be dashed to pieces,
and their pregnant women ripped open.
It has devastated my grapevine
and splintered my fig tree.
It has stripped off its bark and thrown it away;
its branches have turned white.
Gather the people;
sanctify the congregation;
assemble the aged;[fn]
gather the infants,
even babies nursing at the breast.
Let the groom leave his bedroom,
and the bride her honeymoon chamber.
Then you will know
that I am the LORD your God,
who dwells in Zion, my holy mountain.
Jerusalem will be holy,
and foreigners will never overrun it again.
Therefore, I will send fire against the walls of Gaza,
and it will consume its citadels.
Therefore, I will send fire against the walls of Tyre,
and it will consume its citadels.
Therefore, I will send fire against Teman,
and it will consume the citadels of Bozrah.
Therefore, I will set fire to the walls of Rabbah,
and it will consume its citadels.
There will be shouting on the day of battle
and a violent wind on the day of the storm.
Therefore, I will send fire against Moab,
and it will consume the citadels of Kerioth.
Moab will die with a tumult,
with shouting and the sound of the ram's horn.
I will cut off the judge from the land
and kill all its officials with him.
The LORD has spoken.
Proclaim on the citadels in Ashdod
and on the citadels in the land of Egypt:
Assemble on the mountains of Samaria,
and see the great turmoil in the city
and the acts of oppression within it.
The people are incapable of doing right —
this is the LORD's declaration —
those who store up violence and destruction
in their citadels.
She has fallen;
Virgin Israel will never rise again.
She lies abandoned on her land
with no one to raise her up.
The Lord, the GOD of Armies —
he touches the earth;
it melts, and all who dwell in it mourn;
all of it rises like the Nile
and subsides like the Nile of Egypt.
In that day
I will restore the fallen shelter of David:
I will repair its gaps,
restore its ruins,
and rebuild it as in the days of old,
“Get up! Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it because their evil has come up before me.”
Then they picked up Jonah and threw him into the sea, and the sea stopped its raging.
I sank to the foundations of the mountains,
the earth's gates shut behind me forever!
Then you raised my life from the Pit, LORD my God!
Jonah left the city and found a place east of it. He made himself a shelter there and sat in its shade to see what would happen to the city.
Therefore, I will make Samaria
a heap of ruins in the countryside,
a planting area for a vineyard.
I will roll her stones into the valley
and expose her foundations.
All her carved images will be smashed to pieces;
all her wages will be burned in the fire,
and I will destroy all her idols.
Since she collected the wages of a prostitute,
they will be used again for a prostitute.
For her wound is incurable
and has reached even Judah;
it has approached my people's city gate,
as far as Jerusalem.
Depart in shameful nakedness,
you residents of Shaphir;
the residents of Zaanan will not come out.
Beth-ezel is lamenting;
its support[fn] is taken from you.
One who breaks open the way
will advance before them;
they will break out, pass through the city gate,
and leave by it.
Their King will pass through before them,
the LORD as their leader.
Her leaders issue rulings for a bribe,
her priests teach for payment,
and her prophets practice divination for silver.
Yet they lean on the LORD, saying,
“Isn't the LORD among us?
No disaster will overtake us.”
They will shepherd the land of Assyria with the sword,
the land of Nimrod with a drawn blade.[fn]
So he will rescue us from Assyria
when it invades our land,
when it marches against our territory.
Surely a son considers his father a fool,
a daughter opposes her mother,
and a daughter-in-law is against her mother-in-law;
a man's enemies are the men of his own household.
Nineveh has been like a pool of water
from her first days,[fn]
but they are fleeing.
“Stop! Stop! ” they cry,
but no one turns back.
“Plunder the silver! Plunder the gold! ”
There is no end to the treasure,
an abundance of every precious thing.
Charging horseman,
flashing sword,
shining spear;
heaps of slain,
mounds of corpses,
dead bodies without end —
they stumble over their dead.
Because of the continual prostitution of the prostitute,
the attractive mistress of sorcery,
who treats nations and clans like merchandise
by her prostitution and sorcery,
Cush and Egypt were her endless source of strength;
Put and Libya were among her[fn] allies.
Yet she became an exile;
she went into captivity.
Her children were also dashed to pieces
at the head of every street.
They cast lots for her dignitaries,
and all her nobles were bound in chains.
Your court officials are like the swarming locust,
and your scribes like clouds of locusts,
which settle on the walls on a cold day;
when the sun rises, they take off,
and no one knows where they are.
The mountains see you and shudder;
a downpour of water sweeps by.
The deep roars with its voice
and lifts its waves[fn] high.
Sun and moon stand still in their lofty residence,
at the flash of your flying arrows,
at the brightness of your shining spear.
This is the jubilant city
that lives in security,
that says to herself:
I exist, and there is no one else.
What a desolation she has become,
a place for wild animals to lie down!
Everyone who passes by her
scoffs[fn] and shakes his fist.
She has not obeyed;
she has not accepted discipline.
She has not trusted in the LORD;
she has not drawn near to her God.
Her prophets are reckless —
treacherous men.
Her priests profane the sanctuary;
they do violence to instruction.
The righteous LORD is in her;
he does no wrong.
He applies his justice morning by morning;
he does not fail at dawn,
yet the one who does wrong knows no shame.
I said: You will certainly fear me
and accept correction.
Then her dwelling place[fn]
would not be cut off
based on all that I had allocated to her.
However, they became more corrupt
in all their actions.
For I will then restore
pure speech to the peoples
so that all of them may call
on the name of the LORD
and serve him with a single purpose.[fn]
I asked, “Where are you going? ”
He answered me, “To measure Jerusalem to determine its width and length.”
He said to him, “Run and tell this young man: Jerusalem will be inhabited without walls because of the number of people and animals in it.”
The declaration of the LORD: “I myself will be a wall of fire around it, and I will be the glory within it.”
He asked me, “What do you see? ”
I replied, “I see a solid gold lampstand with a bowl at the top. The lampstand also has seven lamps at the top with seven spouts for each of[fn] the lamps.
“There are also two olive trees beside it, one on the right of the bowl and the other on its left.”
“‘What are you, great mountain? Before Zerubbabel you will become a plain. And he will bring out the capstone accompanied by shouts of: Grace, grace to it! ' ”
“This is Wickedness,” he said. He shoved her down into the basket and pushed the lead weight over its opening.
“Take an offering from the exiles, from Heldai, Tobijah, and Jedaiah, who have arrived from Babylon, and go that same day to the house of Josiah son of Zephaniah.
“The crown will reside in the LORD's temple as a memorial to Heldai, Tobijah, Jedaiah, and Hen[fn] son of Zephaniah.
“Aren't these the words that the LORD proclaimed through the earlier prophets when Jerusalem was inhabited and secure,[fn] along with its surrounding cities, and when the southern region and the Judean foothills were inhabited? ”
“For they will sow in peace: the vine will yield its fruit, the land will yield its produce, and the skies will yield their dew. I will give the remnant of this people all these things as an inheritance.
and also against Hamath, which borders it,
as well as Tyre and Sidon,
though they are very shrewd.
Listen! The Lord will impoverish her
and cast her wealth into the sea;
she herself will be consumed by fire.
Like a servant's eyes on his master's hand,
like a servant girl's eyes on her mistress's hand,
so our eyes are on the LORD our God
until he shows us favor.
The mountains surround Jerusalem
and the LORD surrounds his people,
both now and forever.
“I will clothe its priests with salvation,
and its faithful people will shout for joy.
even the darkness is not dark to you.
The night shines like the day;
darkness and light are alike to you.
Translations available: King James Version, New King James Version, New Living Translation, New International Version, English Standard Version, Christian Standard Bible, New American Standard Bible 2020, New American Standard Bible 1995, Legacy Standard Bible 2021, New English Translation, Revised Standard Version, American Standard Version, Young's Literal Translation, Darby Translation, Webster's Bible, Hebrew Names Version, Reina-Valera 1960, Latin Vulgate, Westminster Leningrad Codex, Septuagint, Morphological Greek New Testament, and Textus Receptus.
Loading
Loading
Interlinear |
Bibles |
Cross-Refs |
Commentaries |
Dictionaries |
Miscellaneous |