But when they arrived in the nations where they went, they profaned my holy name. It was said of them, ‘These are the people of the Lord, yet they have departed from his land.’

He made me walk all around among them. ¹  I realized ²  there were a great many bones in the valley and they were very dry.

You will present them before the Lord, and the priests will scatter salt on them ¹  and offer them up as a burnt offering to the Lord.

“Certainly when ¹  I punish Israel for their ²  covenant transgressions, ³  I will destroy ⁴  Bethel’s ⁵  altars. The horns ⁶  of the altar will be cut off and fall to the ground.

The women singing in the temple ¹  will wail in that day.” The sovereign Lord is speaking. “There will be many corpses littered everywhere! ²  Be quiet!”

Look, the sovereign Lord is watching ¹  the sinful nation, ²  and I will destroy it from the face of the earth. But I will not completely destroy the family ³  of Jacob,” says the Lord.

So the Lord ¹  will hand the people of Israel ²  over to their enemies ³  until the time when the woman in labor ⁴  gives birth. ⁵  Then the rest of the king’s ⁶  countrymen will return to be reunited with the people of Israel. ⁷ 

In that day people ¹  will come to you ²  from Assyria as far as ³  Egypt, from Egypt as far as the Euphrates River, ⁴  from the seacoasts ⁵  and the mountains. ⁶ 

I am about to discipline your children ¹  and will spread offal ²  on your faces, ³  the very offal produced at your festivals, and you will be carried away along with it.

A ¹  very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road. Others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road.

While ¹  they were going, some ²  of the guard went into the city and told the chief priests everything that had happened.

Many spread their cloaks on the road and others spread branches they had cut in the fields.

“The Lord will allow you to be struck down before your enemies; you will attack them from one direction but flee from them in seven directions and will become an object of terror ¹  to all the kingdoms of the earth.

The messenger replied, “Israel has fled from ¹  the Philistines! The army has suffered a great defeat! Your two sons, Hophni and Phineas, are dead! The ark of God has been captured!”

David ran and stood over the Philistine. He grabbed Goliath’s ¹  sword, drew it from its sheath, ²  killed him, and cut off his head with it. When the Philistines saw their champion was dead, they ran away.

The Arameans fled before Israel. David killed 700 Aramean charioteers and 40,000 foot soldiers. ¹  He also struck down Shobach, the general in command of the army, who died there.

At that time ¹  the sovereign master ²  will again lift his hand ³  to reclaim ⁴  the remnant of his people ⁵  from Assyria, Egypt, Pathros, ⁶  Cush, ⁷  Elam, Shinar, ⁸  Hamath, and the seacoasts. ⁹ 

Though these people make an uproar as loud as the roaring of powerful waves, ¹  when he shouts at ²  them, they will flee to a distant land, driven before the wind like dead weeds on the hills, or like dead thistles ³  before a strong gale.

Grain is crushed, though one certainly does not thresh it forever. The wheel of one’s wagon rolls over it, but his horses do not crush it.

One thousand will scurry at the battle cry of one enemy soldier; ¹  at the battle cry of five enemy soldiers you will all run away, ²  until the remaining few are as isolated ³  as a flagpole on a mountaintop or a signal flag on a hill.”