David said to the whole Israelite assembly, “If you so desire and the Lord our God approves, ¹  let’s spread the word ²  to our brothers who remain in all the regions of Israel, and to the priests and Levites in their cities, ³  so they may join us.

and built up Baalath, all the storage cities that belonged to him, ¹  and all the cities where chariots and horses were kept. ²  He built whatever he wanted in Jerusalem, ³  Lebanon, and throughout his entire kingdom. ⁴ 

Hezekiah appointed the divisions of the priests and Levites to do their assigned tasks ¹  – to offer burnt sacrifices and present offerings and to serve, give thanks, and offer praise in the gates of the Lord’s sanctuary. ² 

Hezekiah ¹  energetically rebuilt ²  every broken wall. He erected towers and an outer wall, ³  and fortified the terrace of the City of David. ⁴  He made many weapons and shields.

Anyone who survives in any of those places where he is a resident foreigner must be helped by his neighbors ¹  with silver, gold, equipment, and animals, along with voluntary offerings for the temple of God which is in Jerusalem.’”

But if you repent ¹  and obey ²  my commandments and do them, then even if your dispersed people are in the most remote location, ³  I will gather them from there and bring them to the place I have chosen for my name to reside.’

Who stirs up this one from the east? ¹  Who ²  officially commissions him for service? ³  He hands nations over to him, ⁴  and enables him to subdue ⁵  kings. He makes them like dust with his sword, like windblown straw with his bow. ⁶ 

But I will let a small number of them survive the sword, famine, and pestilence, so that they can confess all their abominable practices to the nations where they go. Then they will know that I am the Lord.”

“Therefore this is what the sovereign Lord says: ‘Because you have brought up ¹  your own guilt by uncovering your transgressions and revealing your sins through all your actions, for this reason you will be taken by force. ² 

I will bring them out from among the peoples and gather them from foreign countries; I will bring them to their own land. I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, by the streams and all the inhabited places of the land.

I will magnify ¹  my great name that has been profaned among the nations, that you have profaned among them. The nations will know that I am the Lord, declares the sovereign Lord, when I magnify myself among you in their sight.

Then tell them, ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says: Look, I am about to take the Israelites from among the nations where they have gone. I will gather them from round about and bring them to their land.

“You are righteous, ¹  O Lord, but we are humiliated this day ²  – the people ³  of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem and all Israel, both near and far away in all the countries in which you have scattered them, because they have behaved unfaithfully toward you.

to the church of God that is in Corinth, ¹  to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, and called to be saints, with all those in every place who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours. ²