Should good be paid back with evil? Yet they are virtually digging a pit to kill me. ¹  Just remember how I stood before you pleading on their behalf ²  to keep you from venting your anger on them. ³ 

The anger of the Lord will not turn back until he has fully carried out his intended purposes. ¹  In days to come ²  you people will come to understand this clearly. ³ 

Perhaps when the people of Judah hear about all the disaster I intend to bring on them, they will all stop doing the evil things they have been doing. ¹  If they do, I will forgive their sins and the wicked things they have done.” ² 

This is because you have disheartened the righteous person with lies (although I have not grieved him), and because you have encouraged the wicked person not to turn from his evil conduct and preserve his life.

They turn to Baal; ¹  they are like an unreliable bow. Their leaders will fall by the sword because their prayers to Baal ²  have made me angry. So people will disdain them in the land of Egypt. ³ 

Who knows? Perhaps he will be compassionate and grant a reprieve, ¹  and leave blessing in his wake ²  – a meal offering and a drink offering for you to offer to the Lord your God! ³ 

I will remove ¹  the ruler ²  from Ashdod, ³  the one who holds the royal scepter from Ashkelon. ⁴  I will strike Ekron ⁵  with my hand; ⁶  the rest of the Philistines will also die.” ⁷  The sovereign Lord has spoken!

He will encourage fathers and their children to return to me, ¹  so that I will not come and strike the earth with judgment.” ² 

“He has blinded their eyes and hardened their heart, ¹  so that they would not see with their eyes and understand with their heart, ²  and turn to me, ³  and I would heal them.” ⁴ 

The Lord solemnly warned Israel and Judah through all his prophets and all the seers, “Turn back from your evil ways; obey my commandments and rules that are recorded in the law. I ordered your ancestors to keep this law and sent my servants the prophets to remind you of its demands.” ¹ 

At the end of the twelve months that were required for the women, ¹  when the turn of each young woman arrived to go to King Ahasuerus – for in this way they had to fulfill their time of cosmetic treatment: six months with oil of myrrh, and six months with perfume and various ointments used by women –

When it became the turn of Esther daughter of Abihail the uncle of Mordecai (who had raised her as if she were his own daughter ¹ ) to go to the king, she did not request anything except what Hegai the king’s eunuch, who was overseer of the women, had recommended. Yet Esther met with the approval of all who saw her.

I will turn your festivals into funerals, ¹  and all your songs into funeral dirges. I will make everyone wear funeral clothes ²  and cause every head to be shaved bald. ³  I will make you mourn as if you had lost your only son; ⁴  when it ends it will indeed have been a bitter day. ⁵ 

These two have the power ¹  to close up the sky so that it does not rain during the time ²  they are prophesying. They ³  have power ⁴  to turn the waters to blood and to strike the earth with every kind of plague whenever they want.

You must do what you are instructed, and the verdict they pronounce to you, without fail. Do not deviate right or left from what they tell you.

You must have a spade among your other equipment and when you relieve yourself ¹  outside you must dig a hole with the spade ²  and then turn and cover your excrement. ³ 

But if you ever turn away and make alliances with ¹  these nations that remain near you, ²  and intermarry with them and establish friendly relations with them, ³ 

When they got near Jebus, it was getting quite late ¹  and the servant ²  said to his master, “Come on, let’s stop at ³  this Jebusite city and spend the night in it.”

But his master said to him, “We should not stop at a foreign city where non-Israelites live. ¹  We will travel on to Gibeah.”

Yet the Lord’s great anger against Judah did not subside; he was still infuriated by all the things Manasseh had done. ¹