I have given orders to my chosen soldiers; ¹  I have summoned the warriors through whom I will vent my anger, ²  my boasting, arrogant ones. ³ 

you who practice ritual sex ¹  under the oaks and every green tree, who slaughter children near the streams under the rocky overhangs. ² 

For ¹  you will nurse from her satisfying breasts and be nourished; ²  you will feed with joy from her milk-filled breasts. ³ 

When she lustfully exposed her nakedness, ¹  I ²  was disgusted with her, just as I ³  had been disgusted with her sister.

Be sure of this! The Lord who commands armies has decreed: The nations’ efforts will go up in smoke; their exhausting work will be for nothing. ¹ 

“Woe to you who are well satisfied with food ¹  now, for you will be hungry. “Woe to you ²  who laugh ³  now, for you will mourn and weep.

He ¹  was longing to eat ²  the carob pods ³  the pigs were eating, but ⁴  no one gave him anything.

who longed to eat ¹  what fell from the rich man’s table. In addition, the dogs ²  came and licked ³  his sores.

For you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters; ¹  only do not use your freedom as an opportunity to indulge your flesh, ²  but through love serve one another. ³ 

And see to it that no one becomes ¹  an immoral or godless person like Esau, who sold his own birthright for a single meal. ² 

This is what the Lord who rules over all ¹  says, “Babylon’s thick wall ²  will be completely demolished. ³  Her high gates will be set on fire. The peoples strive for what does not satisfy. ⁴  The nations grow weary trying to get what will be destroyed.” ⁵ 

God has made everything fit beautifully ¹  in its appropriate time, but ²  he has also placed ignorance ³  in the human heart ⁴  so that ⁵  people ⁶  cannot discover what God has ordained, ⁷  from the beginning to the end ⁸  of their lives. ⁹ 

For a fool speaks disgraceful things; ¹  his mind plans out sinful deeds. ²  He commits godless deeds ³  and says misleading things about the Lord; he gives the hungry nothing to satisfy their appetite ⁴  and gives the thirsty nothing to drink. ⁵ 

The dry soil will become a pool of water, the parched ground springs of water. Where jackals once lived and sprawled out, grass, reeds, and papyrus will grow.

You will drink the milk of nations; you will nurse at the breasts of kings. ¹  Then you will recognize that I, the Lord, am your deliverer, your protector, ²  the powerful ruler of Jacob. ³ 

I will leave you on the ground, I will fling you on the open field, I will allow ¹  all the birds of the sky to settle ²  on you, and I will permit ³  all the wild animals ⁴  to gorge themselves on you.

I am depressed! ¹  Indeed, ²  it is as if the summer fruit has been gathered, and the grapes have been harvested. ³  There is no grape cluster to eat, no fresh figs that I crave so much. ⁴ 

They are determined to be experts at doing evil; ¹  government officials and judges take bribes, ²  prominent men make demands, and they all do what is necessary to satisfy them. ³ 

But he answered them, ¹  “An evil and adulterous generation asks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.

As ¹  the crowds were increasing, Jesus ²  began to say, “This generation is a wicked generation; it looks for a sign, ³  but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah. ⁴