‘Therefore I will allow you to die and be buried in peace. ¹  You will not have to witness all the disaster I will bring on this place and its residents.’”’” Then they reported back to the king.

Together they lie down in the dust, and worms cover over them both.

“The dead ²  tremble ³  – those beneath the waters and all that live in them. ⁴ 

So I went and buried them at Perath ¹  as the Lord had ordered me to do.

Then tell them, ¹  ‘The Lord God of Israel who rules over all ²  says, “I will bring ³  my servant ⁴  King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. I will set his throne over these stones which I ⁵  have buried. He will pitch his royal tent ⁶  over them.

He has made me reside in deepest darkness ¹  like those who died long ago.

“Blessed ¹  are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered;

They intended to bury him with criminals, ¹  but he ended up in a rich man’s tomb, ²  because ³  he had committed no violent deeds, nor had he spoken deceitfully.

I tell you the solemn truth, ¹  unless a kernel of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains by itself alone. ²  But if it dies, it produces ³  much grain. ⁴ 

Jeroboam ruled for twenty-two years; then he passed away. ¹  His son Nadab replaced him as king.

Hezekiah passed away ¹  and his son Manasseh replaced him as king.

Uzziah ¹  built up Elat and restored it to Judah after King Amaziah ²  had passed away. ³ 

I should have been as though I had never existed; ¹  I should have been carried right from the womb to the grave!

before I depart, never to return, ¹  to the land of darkness and the deepest shadow, ² 

Will ¹  it ²  go down to the barred gates ³  of death? Will ⁴  we descend ⁵  together into the dust?”

Man puts an end to the darkness; ¹  he searches the farthest recesses for the ore in the deepest darkness. ² 

For no one remembers you in the realm of death, ¹  In Sheol who gives you thanks? ² 

The dead do not praise the Lord, nor do any of those who descend into the silence of death. ¹ 

The violence ¹  done by the wicked ²  will drag them away because ³  they refuse to do what is right. ⁴ 

When John’s ¹  disciples heard this, they came and took his body and placed it in a tomb.