It is better to be content with ¹  what the eyes can see ²  than for one’s heart always to crave more. ³  This continual longing ⁴  is futile – like ⁵  chasing the wind.

Do not say, “Why were the old days better than these days?” ¹  for it is not wise to ask that. ² 

“Do not say, ‘Conspiracy,’ every time these people say the word. ¹  Don’t be afraid of what scares them; don’t be terrified.

Then a trustworthy king will be established; he will rule in a reliable manner, this one from David’s family. ¹  He will be sure to make just decisions and will be experienced in executing justice. ² 

Who acts and carries out decrees? ¹  Who ²  summons the successive generations from the beginning? I, the Lord, am present at the very beginning, and at the very end – I am the one. ³ 

You said, ‘I will rule forever as permanent queen!’ ¹  You did not think about these things; ²  you did not consider how it would turn out. ³ 

If anyone dares to ¹  challenge you, it will not be my doing! Whoever tries to challenge you will be defeated. ² 

“For just as the new heavens and the new earth I am about to make will remain standing before me,” says the Lord, “so your descendants and your name will remain.

Why, then, do these people of Jerusalem ¹  continually turn away from me in apostasy? They hold fast to their deception. ²  They refuse to turn back to me. ³ 

Their tongues are like deadly arrows. ¹  They are always telling lies. ²  Friendly words for their neighbors come from their mouths. But their minds are thinking up ways to trap them. ³ 

But there is little hope for you ever doing good, you who are so accustomed to doing evil. Can an Ethiopian ¹  change the color of his skin? Can a leopard remove its spots? ² 

The Lord said, “Jerusalem, ¹  I will surely send you away for your own good. I will surely ²  bring the enemy upon you in a time of trouble and distress.

But they just keep saying, ‘We do not care what you say! ¹  We will do whatever we want to do! We will continue to behave wickedly and stubbornly!’” ² 

But you are always thinking and looking for ways to increase your wealth by dishonest means. Your eyes and your heart are set on killing some innocent person and committing fraud and oppression. ¹ 

From earliest times, the prophets who preceded you and me invariably ¹  prophesied war, disaster, ²  and plagues against many countries and great kingdoms.

“I, Lord, make the following promise: ¹  ‘I have made a covenant with the day ²  and with the night that they will always come at their proper times. Only if you people ³  could break that covenant

If grape pickers came to pick your grapes, would they not leave a few grapes behind? ¹  If robbers came at night, would they not pillage only what they needed? ² 

ר (Resh) Our very life breath – the Lord’s anointed king ¹  – was caught in their traps, ²  of whom we thought, ³  “Under his protection ⁴  we will survive among the nations.”

They are all like bakers, ¹  they ²  are like a smoldering oven; they are like a baker who does not stoke the fire until the kneaded dough is ready for baking.

They turn to Baal; ¹  they are like an unreliable bow. Their leaders will fall by the sword because their prayers to Baal ²  have made me angry. So people will disdain them in the land of Egypt. ³