Then I said to them, “You see the problem that we have: Jerusalem is desolate and its gates are burned. Come on! Let’s rebuild the wall of Jerusalem so that this reproach will not continue.”

For you say, “We have made a treaty with death, with Sheol ¹  we have made an agreement. ²  When the overwhelming judgment sweeps by ³  it will not reach us. For we have made a lie our refuge, we have hidden ourselves in a deceitful word.” ⁴ 

Then I said, ¹  “Lord, you give me strength and protect me. You are the one I can run to for safety when I am in trouble. ²  Nations from all over the earth will come to you and say, ‘Our ancestors had nothing but false gods – worthless idols that could not help them at all. ³ 

But I see the prophets of Jerusalem ¹  doing something just as shocking. They are unfaithful to me and continually prophesy lies. ²  So they give encouragement to people who are doing evil, with the result that they do not stop their evildoing. ³  I consider all of them as bad as the people of Sodom, and the citizens of Jerusalem as bad as the people of Gomorrah. ⁴ 

If a man has sexual intercourse with a menstruating woman and uncovers her nakedness, he has laid bare her fountain of blood and she has exposed the fountain of her blood, so both of them ¹  must be cut off from the midst of their people.

The land will be abandoned by them ¹  in order that it may make up for ²  its Sabbaths while it is made desolate ³  without them, ⁴  and they will make up for their iniquity because ⁵  they have rejected my regulations and have abhorred ⁶  my statutes.

It then turned on the west side southward from the hill near Beth Horon on the south and extended to Kiriath Baal (that is, Kiriath Jearim), a city belonging to the tribe ¹  of Judah. This is the western border. ² 

“The Lord God of Israel who rules over all ¹  also has something to say about Ahab son of Kolaiah and Zedekiah son of Maaseiah, who are prophesying lies to you and claiming my authority to do so. ²  ‘I will hand them over to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon and he will execute them before your very eyes.

‘You expected a large harvest, but instead ¹  there was little, and when you brought it home it disappeared right away. ²  Why?’ asks the Lord who rules over all. ‘Because my temple remains in ruins, thanks to each of you favoring his own house! ³ 

and a man has sexual relations ¹  with her ²  without her husband knowing it, ³  and it is hidden that she has defiled herself, since ⁴  there was no witness against her, nor was she caught –

They crouch and lie down like a lion, and as a lioness, ¹  who can stir him? Blessed is the one who blesses you, and cursed is the one who curses you!’”

She said to him, “How can you say, ‘I love you,’ when you will not share your secret with me? ¹  Three times you have deceived me and have not told me what makes you so strong.”

If the clouds are full of rain, they will empty themselves on the earth, and whether a tree falls to the south or to the north, the tree will lie wherever it falls.

The prophets prophesy lies. The priests exercise power by their own authority. ¹  And my people love to have it this way. But they will not be able to help you when the time of judgment comes! ² 

The Lord who rules over all ¹  says to the people of Jerusalem: ²  “Do not listen to what those prophets are saying to you. They are filling you with false hopes. They are reporting visions of their own imaginations, not something the Lord has given them to say. ³ 

“Send a message to all the exiles in Babylon. Tell them, ‘The Lord has spoken about Shemaiah the Nehelamite. “Shemaiah has spoken to you as a prophet even though I did not send him. He is making you trust in a lie. ¹ 

Now ¹  the city is laid out as a square, ²  its length and width the same. He ³  measured the city with the measuring rod ⁴  at fourteen hundred miles ⁵  (its length and width and height are equal).

How blessed ¹  is the one ²  who trusts in the Lord ³  and does not seek help from ⁴  the proud or from liars! ⁵ 

Like a club or a sword or a sharp arrow, ¹  so is the one who testifies against ²  his neighbor as a false witness. ³ 

We have heard about Moab’s pride, their great arrogance, their boasting, pride, and excess. ¹  But their boastful claims are empty! ²