My child, guard the commands of your father and do not forsake the instruction of your mother.

To the present hour we are hungry and thirsty, poorly clothed, brutally treated, and without a roof over our heads.

Among these are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I handed over to Satan ¹  to be taught not to blaspheme.

My brothers and sisters, ¹  if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone turns him back,

No longer may the Israelites approach the tent of meeting, or else they will bear their sin ¹  and die.

I will pray ¹  to God, my high ridge: ²  “Why do you ignore ³  me? Why must I walk around mourning ⁴  because my enemies oppress me?”

For you are the God who shelters me. ¹  Why do you reject me? ²  Why must I walk around ³  mourning ⁴  because my enemies oppress me?

Do not those who devise ¹  evil go astray? But those who plan good exhibit ²  faithful covenant love. ³ 

In their streets they wear sackcloth; on their roofs and in their town squares all of them wail, they fall down weeping.

What can I say? He has decreed and acted. ¹  I will walk slowly all my years because I am overcome with grief. ² 

Why do you constantly go about changing your political allegiances? ¹  You will get no help from Egypt just as you got no help from Assyria. ² 

“People of Judah, ¹  get out of Babylon quickly! Leave the land of Babylonia! ²  Be the first to depart! ³  Be like the male goats that lead the herd.

נ (Nun) They ¹  wander blindly ²  through the streets, defiled by the blood they shed, ³  while no one dares ⁴  to touch their garments.

Stay awake and pray that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

Each night and every day among the tombs and in the mountains, he would cry out and cut himself with stones.

Jesus said to them, “Aren’t you deceived ¹  for this reason, because you don’t know the scriptures or the power of God?

According to the number of the days you have investigated this land, forty days – one day for a year – you will suffer for ¹  your iniquities, forty years, and you will know what it means to thwart me. ² 

But if you ever turn away and make alliances with ¹  these nations that remain near you, ²  and intermarry with them and establish friendly relations with them, ³ 

You ¹  will hear a word spoken behind you, saying, “This is the correct ²  way, walk in it,” whether you are heading to the right or the left.

“If you, Israel, want to come back,” says the Lord, “if you want to come back to me ¹  you must get those disgusting idols ²  out of my sight and must no longer go astray. ³