I will say, ¹  ‘My dear children of Israel, ²  keep in mind the road you took when you were carried off. ³  Mark off in your minds the landmarks. Make a mental note of telltale signs marking the way back. Return, my dear children of Israel. Return to these cities of yours.

I will punish him and his descendants and the officials who serve him for the wicked things they have done. ¹  I will bring on them, the citizens of Jerusalem, ²  and the people of Judah all the disaster that I threatened to do to them. I will punish them because I threatened them but they still paid no heed.”’” ³ 

The Lord spoke about the Ammonites. ¹  “Do you think there are not any people of the nation of Israel remaining? Do you think there are not any of them remaining to reinherit their land? Is that why you people who worship the god Milcom ²  have taken possession of the territory of Gad and live in his cities? ³ 

ר (Resh) Look, O Lord! I am distressed; ¹  my stomach is in knots! ²  My heart is pounding ³  inside me. Yes, I was terribly rebellious! ⁴  Out in the street the sword bereaves a mother of her children; ⁵  Inside the house death is present. ⁶ 

ת (Tav) As if it were a feast day, you call ¹  enemies ²  to terrify me ³  on every side. ⁴  On the day of the Lord’s anger no one escaped or survived. My enemy has finished off those healthy infants whom I bore ⁵  and raised. ⁶ 

“‘You took your sons and your daughters whom you bore to me and you sacrificed them ¹  as food for the idols to eat. As if your prostitution not enough,

So take note, ¹  I am about to make you slaves of ²  the tribes ³  of the east. They will make camps among you and pitch their tents among you. They will eat your fruit and drink your milk.

“In those times many will oppose ¹  the king of the south. ²  Those who are violent ³  among your own people will rise up in confirmation of ⁴  the vision, but they will falter.

The descendants of Jacob will be a fire, and the descendants of Joseph a flame. The descendants of Esau will be like stubble. They will burn them up and devour them. There will not be a single survivor ¹  of the descendants of Esau!” Indeed, the Lord has spoken it.

And it will come about that just as you (both Judah and Israel) were a curse to the nations, so I will save you and you will be a blessing. Do not be afraid! Instead, be strong!’

“I (says the Lord) will strengthen the kingdom ¹  of Judah and deliver the people of Joseph ²  and will bring them back ³  because of my compassion for them. They will be as though I had never rejected them, for I am the Lord their God and therefore I will hear them.

Without being weak in faith, he considered ¹  his own body as dead ²  (because he was about one hundred years old) and the deadness of Sarah’s womb.

For it was fitting for him, for whom and through whom all things exist, ¹  in bringing many sons to glory, to make the pioneer ²  of their salvation perfect through sufferings.

Indeed, for forty years the Israelites traveled through the desert until all the men old enough to fight when they left Egypt, the ones who had disobeyed the Lord, died off. ¹  For the Lord had sworn a solemn oath to them that he would not let them see the land he had sworn on oath to give them, ²  a land rich in ³  milk and honey.

So let my lord the king now listen to the words of his servant. If the Lord has incited you against me, may he take delight in ¹  an offering. But if men have instigated this, ²  may they be cursed before the Lord! For they have driven me away this day from being united with the Lord’s inheritance, saying, ‘Go on, serve other gods!’

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 

But Jacob ¹  replied, “My son will not go down there with you, for his brother is dead and he alone is left. ²  If an accident happens to him on the journey you have to make, then you will bring down my gray hair ³  in sorrow to the grave.” ⁴ 

Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel your servants, to whom you swore by yourself and told them, ‘I will multiply your descendants ¹  like the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have spoken about ²  I will give to your descendants, ³  and they will inherit it forever.’”

He will love and bless you, and make you numerous. He will bless you with many children, ¹  with the produce of your soil, your grain, your new wine, your oil, the offspring of your oxen, and the young of your flocks in the land which he promised your ancestors to give you.

The Lord your God will make the labor of your hands ¹  abundantly successful and multiply your children, ²  the offspring of your cattle, and the produce of your soil. For the Lord your God will once more ³  rejoice over you to make you prosperous ⁴  just as he rejoiced over your ancestors,