The Maidens to the Beloved: Where has your beloved gone, O most beautiful among women? Where has your beloved turned? Tell us, ¹  that we may seek him with you. ² 

A voice cries out, “In the wilderness clear a way for the Lord; construct in the desert a road for our God.

Turn to me so you can be delivered, ¹  all you who live in the earth’s remote regions! For I am God, and I have no peer.

All of us had wandered off like sheep; each of us had strayed off on his own path, but the Lord caused the sin of all of us to attack him. ¹ 

He says, ¹  “Build it! Build it! Clear a way! Remove all the obstacles out of the way of my people!”

The people of Damascus will lose heart and turn to flee. Panic will grip them. Pain and anguish will seize them like a woman in labor.

Then he brought me back by way of the outer gate of the sanctuary which faces east, but it was shut.

Nineveh was like a pool ¹  of water ²  throughout her days, ³  but now ⁴  her people ⁵  are running away; ⁶  she cries out: ⁷  “Stop! Stop!” – but no one turns back. ⁸ 

As Aaron spoke ¹  to the whole community of the Israelites and they looked toward the desert, there the glory of the Lord ²  appeared ³  in the cloud,

Moses turned and went down from the mountain with ¹  the two tablets of the testimony in his hands. The tablets were written on both sides – they were written on the front and on the back.

Do not turn to the spirits of the dead and do not seek familiar spirits ¹  to become unclean by them. I am the Lord your God.

“‘The person who turns to the spirits of the dead and familiar spirits ²  to commit prostitution by going after them, I will set my face ³  against that person and cut him off from the midst of his people.

When ¹  the cloud departed from above the tent, Miriam became ²  leprous ³  as snow. Then Aaron looked at ⁴  Miriam, and she was leprous!

When the community assembled ¹  against Moses and Aaron, they turned toward the tent of meeting – and ²  the cloud covered it, and the glory of the Lord appeared.

Then they turned and went up by the road to Bashan. And King Og of Bashan and all his forces ¹  marched out against them to do battle at Edrei.

Then we turned and set out toward the desert land on the way to the Red Sea ¹  just as the Lord told me to do, detouring around Mount Seir for a long time.

So we turned away from our relatives ¹  the descendants of Esau, the inhabitants of Seir, turning from the desert route, ²  from Elat ³  and Ezion Geber, ⁴  and traveling the way of the Moab wastelands.

Next we set out on ¹  the route to Bashan, ²  but King Og of Bashan and his whole army ³  came out to meet us in battle at Edrei. ⁴ 

So I turned and went down the mountain while it ¹  was blazing with fire; the two tablets of the covenant were in my hands.

Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; ignore the stubbornness, wickedness, and sin of these people.