Therefore desert creatures and jackals will live there. Ostriches ¹  will dwell in it too. ²  But no people will ever live there again. No one will dwell there for all time to come. ³ 

Will they not ¹  instruct you and ²  speak to you, and bring forth words ³  from their understanding? ⁴ 

All the descendants of Israel will be vindicated by the Lord and will boast in him. ¹ 

But avoid foolish controversies, genealogies, ¹  quarrels, and fights about the law, ²  because they are useless and empty.

keeping loyal love for thousands, ¹  forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin. But he by no means leaves the guilty unpunished, responding to the transgression ²  of fathers by dealing with children and children’s children, to the third and fourth generation.”

The generation to come – your descendants who will rise up after you, as well as the foreigner who will come from distant places – will see ¹  the afflictions of that land and the illnesses that the Lord has brought on it.

As for the Hebronites: Jeriah was the leader of the Hebronites according to the genealogical records. In the fortieth year of David’s reign, they examined the records and discovered ¹  there were highly respected men in Jazer in Gilead.

In the fourth generation ¹  your descendants ²  will return here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its limit.” ³ 

Joseph saw the descendants of Ephraim to the third generation. ¹  He also saw the children of Makir the son of Manasseh; they were given special inheritance rights by Joseph. ² 

A person of illegitimate birth ¹  may not enter the assembly of the Lord; to the tenth generation no one related to him may do so. ² 

An Ammonite or Moabite ¹  may not enter the assembly of the Lord; to the tenth generation none of their descendants shall ever ²  do so, ³ 

but with whoever stands with us here today before the Lord our God as well as those not with us here today. ¹ 

They also lived in all the settlements that surrounded these towns as far as Baal. ¹  These were their settlements; they kept genealogical records.

Consider its defenses! ¹  Walk through ²  its fortresses, so you can tell the next generation about it! ³ 

so that the next generation, children yet to be born, might know about them. They will grow up and tell their descendants about them. ¹ 

Do not hold us accountable for the sins of earlier generations! ¹  Quickly send your compassion our way, ²  for we are in serious trouble! ³ 

The time is coming when Jacob will take root; ¹  Israel will blossom and grow branches. The produce ²  will fill the surface of the world. ³ 

Now go, write it ¹  down on a tablet in their presence, ²  inscribe it on a scroll, so that it might be preserved for a future time as an enduring witness. ³ 

Yet the children born during your time of bereavement will say within your hearing, ‘This place is too cramped for us, ¹  make room for us so we can live here.’ ² 

“How great are his signs! How mighty are his wonders! His kingdom will last forever, ¹  and his authority continues from one generation to the next.”