So God ¹  again ordains a certain day, “Today,” speaking through David ²  after so long a time, as in the words quoted before, ³  “O, that today you would listen as he speaks! ⁴  Do not harden your hearts.”

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people of his own, so that you may proclaim the virtues ¹  of the one who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

Listen! ¹  I am standing at the door and knocking! If anyone hears my voice and opens the door I will come into his home ²  and share a meal with him, and he with me.

And those who live on the earth will rejoice over them and celebrate, even sending gifts to each other, because these two prophets had tormented those who live on the earth.

A ¹  second ²  angel ³  followed the first, ⁴  declaring: ⁵  “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great city! ⁶  She made all the nations ⁷  drink of the wine of her immoral passion.” ⁸ 

Then ¹  I heard another voice from heaven saying, “Come out of her, my people, so you will not take part in her sins and so you will not receive her plagues,

¹ Moses took ²  the tent ³  and pitched it outside the camp, at a good distance ⁴  from the camp, and he called it the tent of meeting. Anyone ⁵  seeking ⁶  the Lord would go out to the tent of meeting that was outside the camp.

Now a wicked man ¹  named Sheba son of Bicri, a Benjaminite, ²  happened to be there. He blew the trumpet ³  and said, “We have no share in David; we have no inheritance in this son of Jesse! Every man go home, ⁴  O Israel!”

So they sent an edict ¹  throughout Israel from Beer Sheba to Dan, summoning the people ²  to come and observe a Passover for the Lord God of Israel in Jerusalem, for they had not observed it on a nationwide scale as prescribed in the law. ³ 

Then let this clothing and this horse be given to one of the king’s noble officials. Let him ¹  then clothe the man whom the king wishes to honor, and let him lead him about through the plaza of the city on the horse, calling ²  before him, ‘So shall it be done to the man whom the king wishes to honor!’”

So Haman took the clothing and the horse, and he clothed Mordecai. He led him about on the horse throughout the plaza of the city, calling before him, “So shall it be done to the man whom the king wishes to honor!”

God gives a man riches, property, and wealth so that he lacks nothing that his heart ¹  desires, ²  yet God does not enable ³  him to enjoy ⁴  the fruit of his labor ⁵  – instead, someone else ⁶  enjoys ⁷  it! ⁸  This is fruitless and a grave misfortune. ⁹ 

The Beloved about Her Lover: I was asleep, but my mind ¹  was dreaming. ²  Listen! ³  My lover ⁴  is knocking ⁵  at the door! ⁶  The Lover to His Beloved: “Open ⁷  for me, my sister, my darling, my dove, my flawless one! My head is drenched with dew, my hair with the dampness of the night.”

At that time ¹  a large ²  trumpet will be blown, and the ones lost ³  in the land of Assyria will come, as well as the refugees in ⁴  the land of Egypt. They will worship the Lord on the holy mountain in Jerusalem. ⁵ 

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 

They say to a wooden idol, ¹  ‘You are my father.’ They say to a stone image, ‘You gave birth to me.’ ²  Yes, they have turned away from me instead of turning to me. ³  Yet when they are in trouble, they say, ‘Come and save us!’

“If a man divorces his wife and she leaves him and becomes another man’s wife, he may not take her back again. ¹  Doing that would utterly defile the land. ²  But you, Israel, have given yourself as a prostitute to many gods. ³  So what makes you think you can return to me?” ⁴  says the Lord.

“I thought to myself, ¹  ‘Oh what a joy it would be for me to treat you like a son! ²  What a joy it would be for me to give ³  you a pleasant land, the most beautiful piece of property there is in all the world!’ ⁴  I thought you would call me, ‘Father’ ⁵  and would never cease being loyal to me. ⁶ 

“Raise up battle flags throughout the lands. Sound the trumpets calling the nations to do battle. Prepare the nations to do battle against Babylonia. ¹  Call for these kingdoms to attack her: Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz. ²  Appoint a commander to lead the attack. ³  Send horses ⁴  against her like a swarm of locusts. ⁵ 

Into his right hand ¹  comes the portent for Jerusalem – to set up battering rams, to give the signal ²  for slaughter, to shout out the battle cry, ³  to set up battering rams against the gates, to erect a siege ramp, to build a siege wall.