Therefore night will fall, and you will receive no visions; ¹  it will grow dark, and you will no longer be able to read the omens. ²  The sun will set on these prophets, and the daylight will turn to darkness over their heads. ³ 

The charioteers ¹  will charge ahead; ²  their swords ³  will flash ⁴  and their spears ⁵  will glimmer! ⁶  There will be many people slain; ⁷  there will be piles of the dead, and countless casualties ⁸  – so many that people ⁹  will stumble over the corpses.

Your destruction is like an incurable wound; ¹  your demise is like a fatal injury! ²  All who hear what has happened to you ³  will clap their hands for joy, ⁴  for no one ever escaped your endless cruelty! ⁵ 

He takes his battle position ¹  and shakes ²  the earth; with a mere look he frightens ³  the nations. The ancient mountains disintegrate; ⁴  the primeval hills are flattened. He travels on the ancient roads. ⁵ 

The Lord will terrify them, ¹  for ²  he will weaken ³  all the gods of the earth. All the distant nations will worship the Lord in their own lands. ⁴ 

by asking both the priests of the temple ¹  of the Lord who rules over all and the prophets, “Should we weep in the fifth month, ²  fasting as we have done over the years?”

Ashkelon will see and be afraid; Gaza will be in great anguish, as will Ekron, for her hope will have been dried up. ¹  Gaza will lose her king, and Ashkelon will no longer be inhabited.

Howl, fir tree, because the cedar has fallen; the majestic trees have been destroyed. Howl, oaks of Bashan, because the impenetrable forest has fallen.

Woe to the worthless shepherd who abandons the flock! May a sword fall on his arm and his right eye! May his arm wither completely away, and his right eye become completely blind!”

You, however, have turned from the way. You have caused many to violate the law; ¹  you have corrupted the covenant with Levi,” ²  says the Lord who rules over all.

so that you may be like ¹  your Father in heaven, since he causes the sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.

“Enter through the narrow gate, because the gate is wide and the way is spacious that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it.

He said to them, “Would not any one of you, if he had one sheep that fell into a pit on the Sabbath, take hold of it and lift it out?

so that on you will come all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Barachiah, ¹  whom you murdered between the temple and the altar.

Isn’t this the carpenter, the son ¹  of Mary ²  and brother of James, Joses, Judas, and Simon? And aren’t his sisters here with us?” And so they took offense at him.

Or those eighteen who were killed ¹  when the tower in Siloam fell on them, ²  do you think they were worse offenders than all the others who live in Jerusalem? ³ 

Then ¹  he said to them, “Which of you, if you have a son ²  or an ox that has fallen into a well on a Sabbath day, will not immediately pull him out?”

He ¹  said, “Watch out ²  that you are not misled. For many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am he,’ ³  and, ‘The time is near.’ Do not follow them!

I tell you the solemn truth, ¹  unless a kernel of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains by itself alone. ²  But if it dies, it produces ³  much grain. ⁴ 

So in this case I say to you, stay away from these men and leave them alone, because if this plan or this undertaking originates with people, ¹  it will come to nothing, ²