So Eli said to Samuel, “Go back and lie down. When he calls you, say, “Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.” So Samuel went back and lay down in his place.

Yes! ¹  The king may ²  listen and deliver his female servant ³  from the hand of the man who seeks to remove ⁴  both me and my son from the inheritance God has given us!’ ⁵ 

Now the messenger who went to summon Micaiah said to him, “Look, the prophets are in complete agreement that the king will succeed. ¹  Your words must agree with theirs; you must predict success!” ² 

But they mocked God’s messengers, despised his warnings, ¹  and ridiculed his prophets. ²  Finally the Lord got very angry at his people and there was no one who could prevent his judgment. ³ 

“Now Tattenai governor of Trans-Euphrates, Shethar Bozenai, and their colleagues, the officials of Trans-Euphrates – all of you stay far away from there!

Hear, O our God, for we are despised! Return their reproach on their own head! Reduce them to plunder in a land of exile!

So Ezra the priest brought the law before the assembly which included men and women and all those able to understand what they heard. (This happened on the first day of the seventh month.)

Our kings, our leaders, our priests, and our ancestors have not kept your law. They have not paid attention to your commandments or your testimonies by which you have solemnly admonished them.

and reveal to you the secrets of wisdom – for true wisdom has two sides ¹  – so that you would know ²  that God has forgiven some of your sins. ³ 

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

Let us rise early to go to the vineyards, to see if the vines have budded, to see if their blossoms have opened, if the pomegranates are in bloom – there I will give you my love.

¹ They will say to you, “Seek oracles at the pits used to conjure up underworld spirits, from the magicians who chirp and mutter incantations. ²  Should people not seek oracles from their gods, by asking the dead about the destiny of the living?” ³ 

From the ends of the earth we ¹  hear songs – the Just One is majestic. ²  But I ³  say, “I’m wasting away! I’m wasting away! I’m doomed! Deceivers deceive, deceivers thoroughly deceive!” ⁴ 

O Lord, you are ready to act, ¹  but they don’t even notice. They will see and be put to shame by your angry judgment against humankind, ²  yes, fire will consume your enemies. ³ 

The one who lives ¹  uprightly ²  and speaks honestly; the one who refuses to profit from oppressive measures and rejects a bribe; ³  the one who does not plot violent crimes ⁴  and does not seek to harm others ⁵  –

“Hey, ¹  all who are thirsty, come to the water! You who have no money, come! Buy and eat! Come! Buy wine and milk without money and without cost! ² 

The Lord says, ¹  “Listen, ²  nation of Israel! ³  I am about to bring a nation from far away to attack you. It will be a nation that was founded long ago and has lasted for a long time. It will be a nation whose language you will not know. Its people will speak words that you will not be able to understand.

So, this is what the Lord says: ‘I will assuredly ¹  make these people stumble to their doom. ²  Parents and children will stumble and fall to their destruction. ³  Friends and neighbors will die.’

I have listened to them very carefully, ¹  but they do not speak honestly. None of them regrets the evil he has done. None of them says, “I have done wrong!” ²  All of them persist in their own wayward course ³  like a horse charging recklessly into battle.

The Lord says, “Do not start following pagan religious practices. ¹  Do not be in awe of signs that occur ²  in the sky even though the nations hold them in awe.