Everyone who saw the sight ¹  said, “Nothing like this has happened or been witnessed during the entire time since ²  the Israelites left the land of Egypt! ³  Take careful note of it! Discuss it and speak!”

I did not believe these things until I came and saw them with my own eyes. Indeed, I didn’t hear even half the story! ¹  Your wisdom and wealth ²  surpass what was reported to me.

Half of it he burns in the fire – over that half he cooks ¹  meat; he roasts a meal and fills himself. Yes, he warms himself and says, ‘Ah! I am warm as I look at the fire.’

What do I see?” ¹  says the Lord. ²  “The soldiers ³  are terrified. They are retreating. They have been defeated. They are overcome with terror; ⁴  they desert quickly without looking back.

These all died in faith without receiving the things promised, ¹  but they saw them in the distance and welcomed them and acknowledged that they were strangers and foreigners ²  on the earth.

I know, my God, that you examine thoughts ¹  and are pleased with integrity. With pure motives ²  I contribute all this; and now I look with joy as your people who have gathered here contribute to you.

I have seen personally what is the only beneficial and appropriate course of action for people: ¹  to eat and drink, ²  and find enjoyment in all their ³  hard work ⁴  on earth ⁵  during the few days of their life which God has given them, for this is their reward. ⁶ 

But I see the prophets of Jerusalem ¹  doing something just as shocking. They are unfaithful to me and continually prophesy lies. ²  So they give encouragement to people who are doing evil, with the result that they do not stop their evildoing. ³  I consider all of them as bad as the people of Sodom, and the citizens of Jerusalem as bad as the people of Gomorrah. ⁴ 

He said to me, “Do you see, son of man, what the elders of the house of Israel are doing in the dark, each in the chamber of his idolatrous images? ¹  For they think, ‘The Lord does not see us! The Lord has abandoned the land!’”

(The cherubim appeared to have the form ¹  of human hands under their wings.)

But they were startled and terrified, thinking ¹  they saw a ghost. ² 

and in the desert, where you saw him ¹  carrying you along like a man carries his son. This he did everywhere you went until you came to this very place.”

When he got home, ¹  he told his father and mother, “A Philistine girl in Timnah has caught my eye. ²  Now get her for my wife.”

The Lord says, ¹  “I saw the prophets of Samaria ²  doing something that was disgusting. ³  They prophesied in the name of the god Baal and led my people Israel astray. ⁴ 

They see delusion and their omens are a lie. ¹  They say, “the Lord declares,” though the Lord has not sent them; ²  yet they expect their word to be confirmed. ³ 

“‘Therefore, this is what the sovereign Lord says: Because you have spoken false words and forecast delusion, look, ¹  I am against you, ²  declares the sovereign Lord.

Then the Lord will appear above them, and his arrow will shoot forth like lightning; the Lord God will blow the trumpet and will sally forth on the southern storm winds.

and ¹  for many days he appeared to those who had accompanied ²  him from Galilee to Jerusalem. These ³  are now his witnesses to the people.

(Look! I will come like a thief! Blessed is the one who stays alert and does not lose ¹  his clothes so that he will not have to walk around naked and his shameful condition ²  be seen.) ³ 

If the God of my father – the God of Abraham, the one whom Isaac fears ¹  – had not been with me, you would certainly have sent me away empty-handed! But God saw how I was oppressed and how hard I worked, ²  and he rebuked you last night.”