Night and day may you watch over this temple, the place where you promised you would live. ¹  May you answer your servant’s prayer for this place. ² 

Let us rise early to go to the vineyards, to see if the vines have budded, to see if their blossoms have opened, if the pomegranates are in bloom – there I will give you my love.

The one who runs away from the sound of the terror will fall into the pit; ¹  the one who climbs out of the pit, will be trapped by the snare. For the floodgates of the heavens ²  are opened up ³  and the foundations of the earth shake.

No eye took pity on you to do even one of these things for you to spare you; ¹  you were thrown out into the open field ²  because you were detested on the day you were born.

This is what the Lord says: “Because the Ammonites have committed three crimes ¹  – make that four! ²  – I will not revoke my decree of judgment. ³  They ripped open Gilead’s pregnant women ⁴  so they could expand their territory.

But we do not know how he is now able to see, nor do we know who caused him to see. ¹  Ask him, he is a mature adult. ²  He will speak for himself.”

Now the passage of scripture the man ¹  was reading was this: “He was led like a sheep to slaughter, and like a lamb before its shearer is silent, so he did ²  not open his mouth.

They were singing a new song: ¹  “You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals because you were killed, ²  and at the cost of your own blood ³  you have purchased ⁴  for God persons ⁵  from every tribe, language, ⁶  people, and nation.

By his knowledge the primordial sea ¹  was broken open, ²  and the clouds drip down dew. ³ 

When he had finished ¹  speaking ²  all these words, the ground that was under them split open,

If ¹  he tears down, it cannot be rebuilt; if he imprisons a person, there is no escape. ² 

You held my eyelids open; ¹  I was troubled and could not speak. ² 

Death and Destruction ¹  are before the Lord – how much more ²  the hearts of humans! ³ 

I ¹  said to them, “The gates of Jerusalem must not be opened in the early morning, ²  until those who are standing guard close the doors and lock them. ³  Position residents of Jerusalem as guards, some at their guard stations and some near their homes.”

When the evening shadows ¹  began to fall on the gates of Jerusalem before the Sabbath, I ordered ²  the doors to be closed. I further directed that they were not to be opened until after the Sabbath. I positioned ³  some of my young men at the gates so that no load could enter on the Sabbath day.

I opened for my beloved, but my lover had already turned ¹  and gone away. ²  I fell into despair ³  when he departed. ⁴  I looked for him but did not find him; I called him but he did not answer me.

When Daniel realized ¹  that a written decree had been issued, he entered his home, where the windows ²  in his upper room opened toward Jerusalem. ³  Three ⁴  times daily he was ⁵  kneeling ⁶  and offering prayers and thanks to his God just as he had been accustomed to do previously.

Listen attentively, ¹  my God, and hear! Open your eyes and look on our desolated ruins ²  and the city called by your name. ³  For it is not because of our own righteous deeds that we are praying to you, ⁴  but because your compassion is abundant.

Then ¹  one who appeared to be a human being ²  was touching my lips. I opened my mouth and started to speak, saying to the one who was standing before me, “Sir, ³  due to the vision, anxiety has gripped me and I have no strength.

“Bring the entire tithe into the storehouse ¹  so that there may be food in my temple. Test me in this matter,” says the Lord who rules over all, “to see if I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you a blessing until there is no room for it all.