After Jehoiada died, the officials of Judah visited the king and declared their loyalty to him. ¹  The king listened to their advice. ² 

My strength drains away like water; ¹  all my bones are dislocated; my heart ²  is like wax; it melts away inside me.

Their grave becomes their permanent residence, their eternal dwelling place. ¹  They name their lands after themselves, ² 

Let them disappear ¹  like water that flows away! ²  Let them wither like grass! ³ 

Do not strike them dead suddenly, because then my people might forget the lesson. ¹  Use your power to make them homeless vagabonds and then bring them down, O Lord who shields us! ² 

They ¹  neither know nor understand. They stumble ²  around in the dark, while all the foundations of the earth crumble. ³ 

adrift ¹  among the dead, like corpses lying in the grave, whom you remember no more, and who are cut off from your power. ² 

As when one plows and breaks up the soil, ¹  so our bones are scattered at the mouth of Sheol.

Although an assailant may overpower ¹  one person, two can withstand him. Moreover, a three-stranded cord is not quickly broken.

They say, “Let’s attack Judah, terrorize it, and conquer it. ¹  Then we’ll set up the son of Tabeel as its king.” ² 

I cry out ¹  until morning; like a lion he shatters all my bones; you turn day into night and end my life. ² 

I am the Lord, I have no peer, ¹  there is no God but me. I arm you for battle, ²  even though you do not recognize ³  me.

“I, Lord, make the following promise: ¹  ‘I have made a covenant with the day ²  and with the night that they will always come at their proper times. Only if you people ³  could break that covenant

could my covenant with my servant David and my covenant with the Levites ever be broken. So David will by all means always have a descendant to occupy his throne as king and the Levites will by all means always have priests who will minister before me. ¹ 

I will punish the leaders of Judah and Jerusalem, the court officials, ¹  the priests, and all the other people of the land who passed between the pieces of the calf. ² 

The Lord says, ¹  “Army of Babylon, ²  go and attack a nation that lives in peace and security. They have no gates or walls to protect them. ³  They live all alone.

Babylon hammered the whole world to pieces. But see how that ‘hammer’ has been broken and shattered! ¹  See what an object of horror Babylon has become among the nations!

Her officials are like wolves in her midst rending their prey – shedding blood and destroying lives – so they can get dishonest profit.

I will ignite a fire in Egypt; Syene ¹  will writhe in agony, Thebes will be broken down, and Memphis will face enemies every day.

They may eat the grain offering, the sin offering, and the guilt offering, and every devoted thing in Israel will be theirs.