Certainly you have heard how the kings of Assyria have annihilated all lands. ¹  Do you really think you will be rescued? ² 

I did this ¹  because I know how stubborn you are. Your neck muscles are like iron and your forehead like bronze. ² 

Yet, ¹  Lord, you are our father. We are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the product of your labor. ² 

Come back to me, you wayward people. I want to cure your waywardness. ¹  Say, ²  ‘Here we are. We come to you because you are the Lord our God.

You plant them like trees and they put down their roots. ¹  They grow prosperous and are very fruitful. ²  They always talk about you, but they really care nothing about you. ³ 

But if you refuse to surrender, the Lord has shown me a vision of what will happen. Here is what I saw:

“Babylon, ¹  you are my war club, ²  my weapon for battle. I used you to smash nations. ³  I used you to destroy kingdoms.

“Son of man, has not the house of Israel, that rebellious house, said to you, ‘What are you doing?’

Then the people said to me, “Will you not tell us what these things you are doing mean for us?”

You were blameless in your behavior ¹  from the day you were created, until sin was discovered in you.

He said to me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” I said to him, “Sovereign Lord, you know.”

“‘Be ready and stay ready, you and all your companies assembled around you, and be a guard for them. ¹ 

I will bring you to the land I swore to give ¹  to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob – and I will give it to you ²  as a possession. I am the Lord!’”

When Moses’ father-in-law saw all that he was doing for the people, he said, “What is this ¹  that you are doing for the people? ²  Why are you sitting by yourself, and all the people stand around you from morning until evening?”

Then they presented the Israelites with a discouraging ¹  report of the land they had investigated, saying, “The land that we passed through ²  to investigate is a land that devours ³  its inhabitants. ⁴  All the people we saw there ⁵  are of great stature.

But if her father overrules her when he hears ¹  about it, then none ²  of her vows or her obligations which she has pledged for herself will stand. And the Lord will release ³  her from it, because her father overruled her.

But the woman said to him, “Look, you are aware of what Saul has done; he has removed ¹  the mediums and magicians ²  from the land! Why are you trapping me ³  so you can put me to death?”

David said to him, “To whom do you belong, and where are you from?” The young man said, “I am an Egyptian, the servant of an Amalekite man. My master abandoned me when I was ill for three days.

In the past, when Saul was our king, you were the real leader in Israel. ¹  The Lord said to you, ‘You will shepherd my people Israel; you will rule over Israel.’”

Hezekiah prayed before the Lord: “Lord God of Israel, who is enthroned on the cherubs! ¹  You alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth. You made the sky ²  and the earth.