Get up now, ¹  resume your journey, heading for ²  the Amorite hill country, to all its areas ³  including the arid country, ⁴  the highlands, the Shephelah, ⁵  the Negev, ⁶  and the coastal plain – all of Canaan and Lebanon as far as the Great River, that is, the Euphrates.

“The entire community of the Lord says, ‘Why have you disobeyed the God of Israel by turning back today from following the Lord? You built an altar for yourselves and have rebelled today against the Lord. ¹ 

Do the job the Lord your God has assigned you ¹  by following his instructions ²  and obeying ³  his rules, commandments, regulations, and laws as written in the law of Moses. Then you will succeed in all you do and seek to accomplish, ⁴ 

If these people go up to offer sacrifices in the Lord’s temple in Jerusalem, ¹  their loyalty could shift to their former master, ²  King Rehoboam of Judah. They might kill me and return to King Rehoboam of Judah.”

Your thinking is perverse! ¹  Should the potter be regarded as clay? ²  Should the thing made say ³  about its maker, “He didn’t make me”? Or should the pottery say about the potter, “He doesn’t understand”?

You must ¹  observe the Sabbath ²  rather than doing anything you please on my holy day. ³  You must look forward to the Sabbath ⁴  and treat the Lord’s holy day with respect. ⁵  You must treat it with respect by refraining from your normal activities, and by refraining from your selfish pursuits and from making business deals. ⁶ 

So now, tell the people of Judah and the citizens of Jerusalem ¹  this: The Lord says, ‘I am preparing to bring disaster on you! I am making plans to punish you. ²  So, every one of you, stop the evil things you have been doing. ³  Correct the way you have been living and do what is right.’ ⁴ 

to loot and plunder, to attack ¹  the inhabited ruins and the people gathered from the nations, who are acquiring cattle and goods, who live at the center ²  of the earth.”

“Do not be like your ancestors, to whom the former prophets called out, saying, ‘The Lord who rules over all says, “Turn now from your evil wickedness,”’ but they would by no means obey me,” says the Lord.

Thus says the Lord: “By this you will know that I am the Lord: I am going to strike ¹  the water of the Nile with the staff that is in my hand, and it will be turned into blood. ² 

Balaam said to the angel of the Lord, “I have sinned, for I did not know that you stood against me in the road. ¹  So now, if it is evil in your sight, ²  I will go back home.” ³ 

In your distress when all these things happen to you in the latter days, ¹  if you return to the Lord your God and obey him ² 

You must stone him to death ¹  because he tried to entice you away from the Lord your God, who delivered you from the land of Egypt, that place of slavery.

Be very strong! Carefully obey ¹  all that is written in the law scroll of Moses so you won’t swerve from it to the right or the left,

Let’s make a small private upper room ¹  and furnish it with ²  a bed, table, chair, and lamp. When he visits us, he can stay there.”

But they did not repudiate ¹  the sinful ways of the family ²  of Jeroboam, who encouraged Israel to sin; they continued in those sins. ³  There was even an Asherah pole ⁴  standing in Samaria.

He did evil in the sight of ¹  the Lord. He did not repudiate ²  the sinful ways of Jeroboam son of Nebat who encouraged Israel to sin; he continued in those sins. ³ 

So it happened that the Jews who were living near them came and warned us repeatedly ¹  about all the schemes ²  they were plotting ³  against us.

Now his sons used to go ¹  and hold ²  a feast in the house of each one in turn, ³  and they would send and invite ⁴  their three ⁵  sisters to eat and to drink with them.

Do not ignore me in my time of trouble! ¹  Listen to me! ²  When I call out to you, quickly answer me!