before the Lord, for he comes! For he comes to judge the earth! He judges the world fairly, ¹  and the nations in accordance with his justice. ² 

I purchased male and female slaves, and I owned slaves who were born in my house; ¹  I also possessed more livestock – both herds and flocks – than any of my predecessors in Jerusalem. ² 

for before the child knows how to cry out, ‘My father’ or ‘My mother,’ the wealth of Damascus and the plunder of Samaria ¹  will be carried off by the king of Assyria.” ² 

For before the harvest, when the bud has sprouted, and the ripening fruit appears, ¹  he will cut off the unproductive shoots ²  with pruning knives; he will prune the tendrils. ³ 

Hezekiah took the letter ¹  from the messengers and read it. ²  Then Hezekiah went up to the Lord’s temple and spread it out before the Lord.

Their residents are powerless; ¹  they are terrified and ashamed. They are as short-lived as plants in the field or green vegetation. ²  They are as short-lived as grass on the rooftops ³  when it is scorched by the east wind. ⁴ 

He was treated harshly and afflicted, ¹  but he did not even open his mouth. Like a lamb led to the slaughtering block, like a sheep silent before her shearers, he did not even open his mouth. ² 

“For just as the new heavens and the new earth I am about to make will remain standing before me,” says the Lord, “so your descendants and your name will remain.

From one month ¹  to the next and from one Sabbath to the next, all people ²  will come to worship me,” ³  says the Lord.

You can try to wash away your guilt with a strong detergent. You can use as much soap as you want. But the stain of your guilt is still there for me to see,” ¹  says the Lord God. ² 

Then you come and stand in my presence in this temple I have claimed as my own ¹  and say, “We are safe!” You think you are so safe that you go on doing all those hateful sins! ² 

Then the Lord said to me, “Even if Moses and Samuel stood before me pleading for ¹  these people, I would not feel pity for them! ²  Get them away from me! Tell them to go away! ³ 

From earliest times, the prophets who preceded you and me invariably ¹  prophesied war, disaster, ²  and plagues against many countries and great kingdoms.

The Lord affirms, ¹  “The descendants of Israel will not cease forever to be a nation in my sight. That could only happen if the fixed ordering of the heavenly lights were to cease to operate before me.” ² 

Then I set cups and pitchers full of wine in front of the members of the Rechabite community and said to them, “Have some wine.” ¹ 

So the Lord God of Israel who rules over all says, ‘Jonadab son of Rechab will never lack a male descendant to serve me.’” ¹ 

If they do this, tell ¹  them, ‘I was pleading with the king not to send me back to die in the dungeon of Jonathan’s house.’” ² 

ה (He) Her foes subjugated her; ¹  her enemies are at ease. ²  For the Lord afflicted her because of her many acts of rebellion. ³  Her children went away captive ⁴  before the enemy.

ו (Vav) All of Daughter Zion’s ¹  splendor ²  has departed. ³  Her leaders became like deer; they found no pasture, so they were too exhausted to escape ⁴  from the hunter. ⁵ 

In the seventh year, in the fifth month, on the tenth of the month, ¹  some of the elders ²  of Israel came to seek ³  the Lord, and they sat down in front of me.