you slaughtered my children and sacrificed them to the idols. ¹ 

for their hearts contemplate violence, and their lips speak harm. ¹ 

For he is not predisposed to afflict ¹  or to grieve people. ² 

These people are divisive, ¹  worldly, ²  devoid of the Spirit. ³ 

who frustrates the omens of the empty talkers ¹  and humiliates ²  the omen readers, who overturns the counsel of the wise men ³  and makes their advice ⁴  seem foolish,

Then he called out to the Lord, “O Lord, my God, are you also bringing disaster on this widow I am staying with by killing her son?”

The Lord says, ¹  “The leaders of my people are sure to be judged. ²  They were supposed to watch over my people like shepherds watch over their sheep. But they are causing my people to be destroyed and scattered. ³ 

Isn’t this the way your ancestors ¹  acted, causing our God to bring on them and on this city all this misfortune? And now you are causing even more wrath on Israel, profaning the Sabbath like this!”

For the matter concerning the queen will spread to all the women, leading them to treat their husbands with contempt, saying, ‘When King Ahasuerus gave orders to bring Queen Vashti into his presence, she would not come.’

“For the Lord says, ‘Only when the seventy years of Babylonian rule ¹  are over will I again take up consideration for you. ²  Then I will fulfill my gracious promise to you and restore ³  you to your homeland. ⁴ 

“If men fight, and one strikes his neighbor with a stone or with his fist and he does not die, but must remain in bed, ¹ 

and so cause them to incur a penalty for guilt ¹  when they eat their holy offerings, ²  for I am the Lord who sanctifies them.’”

I am ¹  the one who forms light and creates darkness; ²  the one who brings about peace and creates calamity. ³  I am the Lord, who accomplishes all these things.

One who beats an animal to death ¹  must make restitution for it, life for life. ² 

But after it had been moved the Lord attacked ¹  that city as well, causing a great deal of panic. He struck all the people of that city ²  with sores. ³ 

Like the fire that burns down the forest, or the flames that consume the mountainsides, ¹ 

He turned their water into blood, and killed their fish.

A worthless and wicked person ¹  walks around saying perverse ²  things; ³ 

Those who enact unjust policies are as good as dead, ¹  those who are always instituting unfair regulations, ² 

He gives strength to those who are tired; to the ones who lack power, he gives renewed energy.