Then Shaphan the scribe told the king, “Hilkiah the priest has given me a scroll.” Shaphan read it out loud before the king.

Fear the sword yourselves, for wrath ¹  brings the punishment ²  by the sword, so that you may know that there is judgment.” ³ 

Is it your opinion ¹  that God ²  should recompense it, because you reject this? ³  But you must choose, and not I, so tell us what you know.

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 

Blessed is the one ¹  who listens to me, watching ²  at my doors day by day, waiting ³  beside my doorway. ⁴ 

All the streams flow ¹  into the sea, but the sea is not full, and to the place where the streams flow, there they will flow again. ² 

Those who get up early to drink beer are as good as dead, ¹  those who keep drinking long after dark until they are intoxicated with wine. ² 

Is this really your boisterous city ¹  whose origins are in the distant past, ²  and whose feet led her to a distant land to reside?

He says, ¹  “Indeed, my sword has slaughtered heavenly powers. ²  Look, it now descends on Edom, ³  on the people I will annihilate in judgment.”

to open blind eyes, ¹  to release prisoners ²  from dungeons, those who live in darkness from prisons.

They will rebuild the perpetual ruins and restore the places that were desolate; ¹  they will reestablish the ruined cities, the places that have been desolate since ancient times.

“My, how good you have become at chasing after your lovers! ¹  Why, you could even teach prostitutes a thing or two! ² 

The Lord said to me, ¹  “Tell them, ‘The Lord says, Do people not get back up when they fall down? Do they not turn around when they go the wrong way? ² 

But there is little hope for you ever doing good, you who are so accustomed to doing evil. Can an Ethiopian ¹  change the color of his skin? Can a leopard remove its spots? ² 

But if that nation I threatened stops doing wrong, ¹  I will cancel the destruction ²  I intended to do to it.

But I will punish you as your deeds deserve,’ says the Lord. ¹  ‘I will set fire to your palace; it will burn up everything around it.’” ² 

You must pay attention to the exhortations of my servants the prophets. I have sent them to you over and over again. ¹  But you have not paid any attention to them.

When a righteous person turns back from his righteousness and practices wrongdoing, he will die for it; ¹  because of the wrongdoing he has done, he will die.

“‘This is what the sovereign Lord says: On that day thoughts will come into your mind, ¹  and you will devise an evil plan.

However, in the future I will allure her; ¹  I will lead ²  her back into the wilderness, and speak tenderly to her.