I will vent my rage against the wall, and against those who coated it with whitewash. Then I will say to you, “The wall is no more and those who whitewashed it are no more –

Tell the ones who coat it with whitewash that it will fall. When there is a deluge of rain, hailstones ¹  will fall and a violent wind will break out. ² 

When the wall has collapsed, people will ask you, “Where is the whitewash you coated it with?”

“‘This is because they have led my people astray saying, “All is well,” ¹  when things are not well. When anyone builds a wall without mortar, ²  they coat it with whitewash.

Then Paul said to him, “God is going to strike you, you whitewashed wall! ¹  Do ²  you sit there judging me according to the law, ³  and in violation of the law ⁴  you order me to be struck?”

I will break down the wall you coated with whitewash and knock it to the ground so that its foundation is exposed. When it falls you will be destroyed beneath it, ¹  and you will know that I am the Lord.

Her prophets coat their messages with whitewash. ¹  They see false visions and announce lying omens for them, saying, ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says,’ when the Lord has not spoken.

“Woe to you, experts in the law ¹  and you Pharisees, hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs that look beautiful on the outside but inside are full of the bones of the dead and of everything unclean. ² 

But you, however, are inventors of lies; ¹  all of you are worthless physicians! ² 

The one who acquits the guilty and the one who condemns the innocent ¹  – both of them are an abomination to the Lord. ² 

The one who says to the guilty, ¹  “You are innocent,” ²  peoples will curse him, and nations will denounce ³  him.

The one who covers ¹  his transgressions will not prosper, ²  but whoever confesses them and forsakes them will find mercy. ³ 

When you cross the Jordan River ¹  to the land the Lord your God is giving you, you must erect great stones and cover ²  them with plaster.

So when you cross the Jordan you must erect on Mount Ebal ¹  these stones about which I am commanding you today, and you must cover them with plaster.

At that very moment the fingers of a human hand appeared ¹  and wrote on the plaster of the royal palace wall, opposite the lampstand. ²  The king was watching the back ³  of the hand that was writing.

‘The Lord is slow to anger and abounding in loyal love, ¹  forgiving iniquity and transgression, ²  but by no means clearing ³  the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children until the third and fourth generations.’ ⁴ 

“‘Therefore this is what the sovereign Lord says: In my rage I will make a violent wind break out. In my anger there will be a deluge of rain and hailstones in destructive fury.

But you, Lord, know all their plots to kill me. Do not pardon their crimes! Do not ignore their sins as though you had erased them! ¹  Let them be brought down in defeat before you! Deal with them while you are still angry! ²