Your prophets have become like jackals among the ruins, O Israel.

The seacoast ¹  will be used as pasture lands ²  by the shepherds and as pens for their flocks.

They ¹  love the place of honor at banquets and the best seats in the synagogues ² 

But as the man ¹  went out he began to announce it publicly and spread the story widely, so that Jesus ²  was no longer able to enter any town openly but stayed outside in remote places. Still ³  they kept coming ⁴  to him from everywhere.

He enabled him ¹  to travel over the high terrain of the land, and he ate of the produce of the fields. He provided honey for him from the cliffs, ²  and olive oil ³  from the hardest of ⁴  rocks, ⁵ 

¹  All the men of Israel got up from their places and took their positions at Baal Tamar, while the Israelites hiding in ambush jumped out of their places west of Gibeah.

‘We ¹  are ashamed because we have been insulted. ²  Our faces show our disgrace. ³  For foreigners have invaded the holy rooms ⁴  in the Lord’s temple.’

I will stretch out my hand against them ¹  and make the land a desolate waste from the wilderness to Riblah, ²  in all the places where they live. Then they will know that I am the Lord!”

“‘This is what the sovereign Lord says: In the day I cleanse you from all your sins, I will populate the cities and the ruins will be rebuilt.

The sovereign Lord is my source of strength. ¹  He gives me the agility of a deer; ²  he enables me to negotiate the rugged terrain. ³  (This prayer is for the song leader. It is to be accompanied by stringed instruments.) ⁴ 

For our struggle ¹  is not against flesh and blood, ²  but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world rulers of this darkness, ³  against the spiritual forces ⁴  of evil in the heavens. ⁵ 

The musicians, the descendants of Asaph, manned their posts, as prescribed by David, Asaph, Heman, and Jeduthun the king’s prophet. ¹  The guards at the various gates did not need to leave their posts, for their fellow Levites made preparations for them.

Certainly the Lord will console Zion; he will console all her ruins. He will make her wilderness like Eden, her desert like the Garden of the Lord. Happiness and joy will be restored to ¹  her, thanksgiving and the sound of music.

I will give you into their hands and they will destroy your chambers and tear down your pavilions. They will strip you of your clothing and take your beautiful jewelry and leave you naked and bare.

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.

to loot and plunder, to attack ¹  the inhabited ruins and the people gathered from the nations, who are acquiring cattle and goods, who live at the center ²  of the earth.”

When all this was over, the Israelites ¹  who were in the cities of Judah went out and smashed the sacred pillars, cut down the Asherah poles, and demolished ²  all the high places and altars throughout Judah, Benjamin, Ephraim, and Manasseh. ³  Then all the Israelites returned to their own homes in their cities. ⁴ 

He also made ¹  two gold rings for it under its border, on its two sides, on opposite sides, ²  as places ³  for poles to carry it with.

This is ¹  a perpetual statute throughout your generations ²  in all the places where you live: You must never eat any fat or any blood.’” ³ 

You must not do any work. This is a perpetual statute throughout your generations ¹  in all the places where you live.