Now be aware of this, and see what you can do. For disaster has been planned for our lord and his entire household. ¹  He is such a wicked person ²  that no one tells him anything!”

I will establish a place for my people Israel and settle ¹  them there; they will live there and not be disturbed ²  anymore. Violent men will not oppress them again, as they did in the beginning ³ 

Now ¹  let the king be aware that the Jews who came up to us from you have gone to Jerusalem. They are rebuilding that rebellious and odious city. ²  They are completing its walls and repairing its foundations.

But you, O God, will bring them ¹  down to the deep Pit. ²  Violent and deceitful people ³  will not live even half a normal lifespan. ⁴  But as for me, I trust in you.

Certainly ¹  spending just one day in your temple courts is better than spending a thousand elsewhere. ²  I would rather stand at the entrance ³  to the temple of my God than live ⁴  in the tents of the wicked.

Yet he too is wise ¹  and he will bring disaster; he does not retract his decree. ²  He will attack the wicked nation, ³  and the nation that helps ⁴  those who commit sin. ⁵ 

That is how ¹  they have grown fat and sleek. ²  There is no limit to the evil things they do. ³  They do not plead the cause of the fatherless in such a way as to win it. They do not defend the rights of the poor.

Then she defied my regulations and my statutes, becoming more wicked than the nations ¹  and the countries around her. ²  Indeed, they ³  have rejected my regulations, and they do not follow my statutes.

Then you will know that I am the Lord, when I deal with you for the sake of my reputation and not according to your wicked conduct and corrupt deeds, O house of Israel, declares the sovereign Lord.’”

I will dry up the waterways and hand the land over to ¹  evil men. I will make the land and everything in it desolate by the hand of foreigners. I, the Lord, have spoken!

The Lord is slow to anger ¹  but great in power; ²  the Lord will certainly not ³  allow the wicked ⁴  to go unpunished.He marches out ⁵  in the whirlwind and the raging storm; dark storm clouds billow like dust ⁶  under his feet. ⁷ 

They said to him, “He will utterly destroy those evil men! Then he will lease the vineyard to other tenants who will give him his portion at the harvest.”

Then it goes and brings seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they go in and live there, so ¹  the last state of that person ²  is worse than the first.” ³ 

I am writing to you, fathers, that ¹  you have known him who has been from the beginning. I am writing to you, young people, that ²  you have conquered the evil one. ³ 

not like Cain ¹  who was of the evil one and brutally ²  murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his deeds were evil, but his brother’s were righteous.

We know that everyone fathered ¹  by God does not sin, but God ²  protects ³  the one he has fathered, and the evil one cannot touch him.

Doesn’t my master drink from this cup ¹  and use it for divination? ²  You have done wrong!’” ³ 

He said to them, “Why do you behave in this way? For I hear about these evil things from all these ¹  people.

Yes, ¹  wild dogs surround me – a gang of evil men crowd around me; like a lion they pin my hands and feet. ² 

Sing to the Lord! Praise the Lord! For he rescues the oppressed from the clutches of evildoers. ¹