This is how the once-proud city will end up ¹  – the city that was so secure. ²  She thought to herself, ³  “I am unique! No one can compare to me!” ⁴  What a heap of ruins she has become, a place where wild animals live! Everyone who passes by her taunts her ⁵  and shakes his fist. ⁶ 

¹ Be careful what you do ²  when you go to the temple ³  of God; draw near to listen ⁴  rather than to offer a sacrifice ⁵  like fools, ⁶  for they do not realize that they are doing wrong.

Tremble, you complacent ones! Shake with fear, you carefree ones! Strip off your clothes and expose yourselves – put sackcloth on your waist! ¹ 

They offer only superficial help for the harm my people have suffered. ¹  They say, ‘Everything will be all right!’ But everything is not all right! ² 

They offer only superficial help for the hurt my dear people ¹  have suffered. ²  They say, “Everything will be all right!” But everything is not all right! ³ 

“‘See here – this was the iniquity ¹  of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters had majesty, abundance of food, and enjoyed carefree ease, but they did not help ²  the poor and needy.

The sound of a carefree crowd accompanied her, ¹  including all kinds of men; ²  even Sabeans ³  were brought from the desert. The sisters ⁴  put bracelets on their wrists and beautiful crowns on their heads.

Woe ¹  to those who live in ease in Zion, ²  to those who feel secure on Mount Samaria. They think of themselves as ³  the elite class of the best nation. The family ⁴  of Israel looks to them for leadership. ⁵ 

“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.

For just as through the disobedience of the one man ¹  many ²  were made sinners, so also through the obedience of one man ³  many ⁴  will be made righteous.

in which ¹  you formerly lived ²  according to this world’s present path, ³  according to the ruler of the kingdom ⁴  of the air, the ruler of ⁵  the spirit ⁶  that is now energizing ⁷  the sons of disobedience, ⁸ 

This happened because they did not obey ¹  the Lord their God and broke his agreement with them. ²  They did not pay attention to and obey all that Moses, the Lord’s servant, had commanded. ³ 

Because you rage against me, and the uproar you create has reached my ears; ¹  I will put my hook in your nose, ²  and my bridle between your lips, and I will lead you back the way you came.”

So now, listen to this, O one who lives so lavishly, ¹  who lives securely, who says to herself, ²  ‘I am unique! No one can compare to me! ³  I will never have to live as a widow; I will never lose my children.’ ⁴ 

Look at the birds in the sky: ¹  They do not sow, or reap, or gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds ²  them. Aren’t you more valuable ³  than they are?

Then the one who had received the one talent came and said, ‘Sir, I knew that you were a hard man, harvesting where you did not sow, and gathering where you did not scatter seed,

“But be on your guard ¹  so that your hearts are not weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of this life, and that day close down upon you suddenly like a trap. ² 

And the tongue is a fire! The tongue represents ¹  the world of wrongdoing among the parts of our bodies. It ²  pollutes the entire body and sets fire to the course of human existence – and is set on fire by hell. ³ 

or when a person swears an oath, speaking thoughtlessly ¹  with his lips, whether to do evil or to do good, with regard to anything which the individual might speak thoughtlessly in an oath, even if he did not realize it, but he himself has later come to know it and is guilty with regard to one of these oaths ²  –

So the five men journeyed on ¹  and arrived in Laish. They noticed that the people there ²  were living securely, like the Sidonians do, ³  undisturbed and unsuspecting. No conqueror was troubling them in any way. ⁴  They lived far from the Sidonians and had no dealings with anyone. ⁵