I ¹  post watchmen on your walls, O Jerusalem; they should keep praying all day and all night. ²  You who pray to ³  the Lord, don’t be silent!

The Lord said to me, “Announce all the following words in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem: ‘Listen to the terms of my covenant with you ¹  and carry them out!

I, the Lord, say: ¹  ‘You people have deserted me! You keep turning your back on me.’ ²  So I have unleashed my power against you ³  and have begun to destroy you. ⁴  I have grown tired of feeling sorry for you!” ⁵ 

You must no longer say that the Lord’s message is burdensome. ¹  For what is ‘burdensome’ ²  really pertains to what a person himself says. ³  You are misrepresenting ⁴  the words of our God, the living God, the Lord who rules over all. ⁵ 

א (Alef) Alas! ¹  The Lord ²  has covered Daughter Zion ³  with his anger. ⁴  He has thrown down the splendor of Israel from heaven to earth; he did not protect ⁵  his temple ⁶  when he displayed his anger. ⁷ 

“‘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.

Understand that ¹  it is not for your sake I am about to act, declares the sovereign Lord. Be ashamed and embarrassed by your behavior, O house of Israel.

‘Who among you survivors saw the former splendor of this temple? ¹  How does it look to you now? Isn’t it nothing by comparison?

Then go quickly and tell his disciples, ‘He has been raised from the dead. He ¹  is going ahead of you into Galilee. You will see him there.’ Listen, I have told you!”

Whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven will ¹  also forgive you your sins.” ² 

Rejoice in that day, and jump for joy, because ¹  your reward is great in heaven. For their ancestors ²  did the same things to the prophets. ³ 

But the Advocate, ¹  the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you ²  everything, ³  and will cause you to remember everything ⁴  I said to you.

You heard me say to you, ¹  ‘I am going away and I am coming back to you.’ If you loved me, you would be glad ²  that I am going to the Father, because the Father is greater than I am. ³ 

While he was with them, ¹  he declared, ²  “Do not leave Jerusalem, ³  but wait there ⁴  for what my ⁵  Father promised, ⁶  which you heard about from me. ⁷ 

For ¹  we are in danger of being charged with rioting ²  today, since there is no cause we can give to explain ³  this disorderly gathering.” ⁴ 

and do not present your members to sin as instruments ¹  to be used for unrighteousness, ²  but present yourselves to God as those who are alive from the dead and your members to God as instruments ³  to be used for righteousness.

You, however, are not in ¹  the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, this person does not belong to him.

But you who eat vegetables only – why do you judge your brother or sister? ¹  And you who eat everything – why do you despise your brother or sister? ²  For we will all stand before the judgment seat ³  of God.

For if your brother or sister ¹  is distressed because of what you eat, ²  you are no longer walking in love. ³  Do not destroy by your food someone for whom Christ died.

Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food. For although all things are clean, ¹  it is wrong to cause anyone to stumble by what you eat.