You will no longer see a defiant ¹  people whose language you do not comprehend, ²  whose derisive speech you do not understand. ³ 

He will not grow dim or be crushed ¹  before establishing justice on the earth; the coastlands ²  will wait in anticipation for his decrees.” ³ 

for just as the sky ¹  is higher than the earth, so my deeds ²  are superior to ³  your deeds and my plans ⁴  superior to your plans.

Go west ¹  across the sea to the coasts of Cyprus ²  and see. Send someone east to Kedar ³  and have them look carefully. See if such a thing as this has ever happened:

Leave your towns, you inhabitants of Moab. Go and live in the cliffs. Be like a dove that makes its nest high on the sides of a ravine. ¹ 

Babylon hammered the whole world to pieces. But see how that ‘hammer’ has been broken and shattered! ¹  See what an object of horror Babylon has become among the nations!

He spoke kindly to him and gave him a more prestigious position than ¹  the other kings who were with him in Babylon.

They will be desolate among desolate lands, and their cities will be among ruined cities.

Then they will know that I, the Lord their God, am with them, ¹  and that they are my people, the house of Israel, declares the sovereign Lord. ² 

For a nation ¹  has invaded ²  our ³  land. There are so many of them they are too numerous to count. ⁴  Their teeth are like those ⁵  of a lion; they tear apart their prey like a lioness. ⁶ 

But you are the ones who will be forced to leave! ¹  For this land is not secure! ²  Sin will thoroughly destroy it! ³ 

The one who builds his house by unjust gain is as good as dead. ¹  He does this so he can build his nest way up high and escape the clutches of disaster. ² 

But I am greatly displeased with the nations that take my grace for granted. ¹  I was a little displeased with them, but they have only made things worse for themselves.

For I tell you, unless your righteousness goes beyond that of the experts in the law ¹  and the Pharisees, ²  you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

For then there will be great suffering ¹  unlike anything that has happened ²  from the beginning of the world until now, or ever will happen.

But so that you may know ¹  that the Son of Man ²  has authority on earth to forgive sins,” – he said to the paralytic ³  –

Going a little farther, he threw himself to the ground and prayed that if it were possible the hour would pass from him.

Now when the people saw the miraculous sign that Jesus ¹  performed, they began to say to one another, “This is certainly the Prophet ²  who is to come into the world.” ³ 

Jesus replied, ¹  “You people ²  are from below; I am from above. You people are from this world; I am not from this world.

When he had said these things, ¹  Jesus went out with his disciples across the Kidron Valley. ²  There was an orchard ³  there, and he and his disciples went into it.