After he had gone through those regions ¹  and spoken many words of encouragement ²  to the believers there, ³  he came to Greece, ⁴ 

Then ¹  they ²  told me: “You must prophesy again about many peoples, nations, ³  languages, and kings.”

And the people went about and gathered it, and ground it with mills or pounded it in mortars; they baked it in pans and made cakes of it. It tasted like fresh olive oil. ¹ 

“‘Say to them: This is what the sovereign Lord says: “‘Will it prosper? Will he not rip out its roots and cause its fruit to rot ¹  and wither? All its foliage ²  will wither. No strong arm or large army will be needed to pull it out by its roots. ³ 

On both sides of the river’s banks, every kind of tree will grow for food. Their leaves will not wither nor will their fruit fail, but they will bear fruit every month, because their water source flows from the sanctuary. Their fruit will be for food and their leaves for healing.” ¹ 

They are then to take other stones and replace those stones, ¹  and he is to take other plaster and replaster the house.

My teaching will drop like the rain, my sayings will drip like the dew, ¹  as rain drops upon the grass, and showers upon new growth.

They sacrificed to demons, not God, to gods they had not known; to new gods who had recently come along, gods your ancestors ¹  had not known about.

Of Joseph he said: May the Lord bless his land with the harvest produced by the sky, ¹  by the dew, and by the depths crouching beneath;

“But there is hope for ¹  a tree: ²  If it is cut down, it will sprout again, and its new shoots will not fail.

Moreover, keep me from committing flagrant ¹  sins; do not allow such sins to control me. ²  Then I will be blameless, and innocent of blatant ³  rebellion.

You, by your power, ¹  defeated nations and settled our fathers on their land; ²  you crushed ³  the people living there ⁴  and enabled our ancestors to occupy it. ⁵ 

Yes, ¹  he struck a rock and water flowed out, streams gushed forth. But can he also give us food? Will he provide meat for his people?”

I gloat in triumph over those who tried to ambush me; ¹  I hear the defeated cries of the evil foes who attacked me. ² 

Your wife will be like a fruitful vine ¹  in the inner rooms of your house; your children ²  will be like olive branches, as they sit all around your table.

“Who ¹  is this who appears ²  like the dawn? ³  Beautiful as the moon, ⁴  bright ⁵  as the sun, awe-inspiring ⁶  as the stars in procession?” ⁷ 

The mandrakes ¹  send out their fragrance; over our door is every delicacy, ²  both new and old, which I have stored up for you, my lover.

The time is coming when Jacob will take root; ¹  Israel will blossom and grow branches. The produce ²  will fill the surface of the world. ³ 

O sovereign master, your decrees can give men life; may years of life be restored to me. ¹  Restore my health ²  and preserve my life.’

In those days and at that time I will raise up for them a righteous descendant ¹  of David. “‘He will do what is just and right in the land.