His people have been unfaithful ¹  to him; they have not acted like his children ²  – this is their sin. ³  They are a perverse ⁴  and deceitful generation.

I grind them as fine as the dust of the ground; I crush them and stomp on them like clay ¹  in the streets.

how much more to those who live in houses of clay, ¹  whose foundation is in the dust, who are crushed ²  like ³  a moth?

When you ignore them, they panic. ¹  When you take away their life’s breath, they die and return to dust.

Look how you have fallen from the sky, O shining one, son of the dawn! ¹  You have been cut down to the ground, O conqueror ²  of the nations! ³ 

you will be blessed, you who plant seed by all the banks of the streams, ¹  you who let your ox and donkey graze. ² 

You will be profaned within yourself ¹  in the sight of the nations; then you will know that I am the Lord.’”

They do not realize ¹  that I remember all of their wicked deeds. Their evil deeds have now surrounded them; their sinful deeds are always before me. ² 

The mountains tremble before him, ¹  the hills convulse; ²  the earth is laid waste ³  before him, the world and all its inhabitants ⁴  are laid waste. ⁵ 

“Their throats are open graves, ¹  they deceive with their tongues, the poison of asps is under their lips.” ² 

Can a fig tree produce olives, my brothers and sisters, ¹  or a vine produce figs? Neither can a salt water spring produce fresh water.

Yet do it with courtesy and respect, ¹  keeping a good conscience, so that those who slander your good conduct in Christ may be put to shame when they accuse you. ² 

He jammed ¹  the wheels of their chariots so that they had difficulty driving, ²  and the Egyptians said, “Let’s flee ³  from Israel, for the Lord fights ⁴  for them against Egypt!”

O mountains of Gilboa, may there be no dew or rain on you, nor fields of grain offerings! ¹  For it was there that the shield of warriors was defiled; ²  the shield of Saul lies neglected without oil. ³ 

Because of this the earth ¹  will quake, ²  and all who live in it will mourn. The whole earth ³  will rise like the River Nile, ⁴  it will surge upward ⁵  and then grow calm, ⁶  like the Nile in Egypt. ⁷ 

You should not ¹  have gloated ²  when your relatives ³  suffered calamity. ⁴  You should not have rejoiced over the people of Judah when they were destroyed. ⁵  You should not have boasted ⁶  when they suffered adversity. ⁷ 

And the tongue is a fire! The tongue represents ¹  the world of wrongdoing among the parts of our bodies. It ²  pollutes the entire body and sets fire to the course of human existence – and is set on fire by hell. ³ 

I have stirred up one out of the north ¹  and he advances, one from the eastern horizon who prays in my name. ²  He steps on ³  rulers as if they were clay, like a potter treading the clay.

“‘As for you, O house of Israel, this is what the sovereign Lord says: Each of you go and serve your idols, ¹  if you will not listen to me. ²  But my holy name will not be profaned ³  again by your sacrifices ⁴  and your idols.

“Son of man, sing a lament for Pharaoh king of Egypt, and say to him: “‘You were like a lion ¹  among the nations, but you are a monster in the seas; you thrash about in your streams, stir up the water with your feet, and muddy your ²  streams.