He will become a sanctuary, ¹  but a stone that makes a person trip, and a rock that makes one stumble – to the two houses of Israel. ²  He will become ³  a trap and a snare to the residents of Jerusalem. ⁴ 

For he has even sent a message to us here in Babylon. He wrote and told us, ¹  “You will be there a long time. Build houses and settle down. Plant gardens and eat what they produce.”’” ² 

I will bring the most wicked of the nations and they will take possession of their houses. I will put an end to the arrogance of the strong, and their sanctuaries ¹  will be desecrated.

It will be a holy portion of the land; it will be for the priests, the ministers of the sanctuary who approach the Lord to minister to him. It will be a place for their houses and a holy place for the sanctuary. ¹ 

And whoever has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much ¹  and will inherit eternal life.

“Also take a census of the Gershonites, by their clans and by their families.

They will take some of the blood and put it on the two side posts and top of the doorframe of the houses where they will eat it.

This very day return to them their fields, their vineyards, their olive trees, and their houses, along with the interest ¹  that you are exacting from them on the money, the grain, the new wine, and the olive oil.”

Their houses will be turned over to others as will their fields and their wives. For I will unleash my power ¹  against those who live in this land,” says the Lord.

Do not carry any loads out of your houses or do any work on the Sabbath day. ¹  But observe the Sabbath day as a day set apart to the Lord, ²  as I commanded your ancestors. ³ 

Let cries of terror be heard in their houses when you send bands of raiders unexpectedly to plunder them. ¹  For they have virtually dug a pit to capture me and have hidden traps for me to step into.

They will burn down your houses and execute judgments on you in front of many women. Thus I will put a stop to your prostitution, and you will no longer give gifts to your clients. ¹ 

They confiscate the fields they desire, and seize the houses they want. ¹  They defraud people of their homes, ²  and deprive people of the land they have inherited. ³ 

Those ¹  of Pharaoh’s servants who feared the word of the Lord hurried to bring their ²  servants and livestock into the houses,

Therefore you ¹  will have to say farewell ²  to Moresheth Gath. The residents ³  of Achzib ⁴  will be as disappointing as a dried up well ⁵  to the kings of Israel. ⁶ 

then you will say, ‘It is the sacrifice ¹  of the Lord’s Passover, when he passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt, when he struck ²  Egypt and delivered our households.’” The people bowed down low ³  to the ground,

who will not receive in this age ¹  a hundred times as much – homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children, fields, all with persecutions ²  – and in the age to come, eternal life. ³ 

“Take a census ¹  of the Kohathites from among the Levites, by their families and by their clans,

those of them numbered by their families, by their clans, were 2,630.

There were 20,200 family leaders and warriors listed in their genealogical records.