ק (Qof) I called for my lovers, ¹  but they had deceived me. My priests and my elders perished in the city. Truly they had ²  searched for food to ³  keep themselves ⁴  alive. ⁵ 

Disaster after disaster will come, and one rumor after another. They will seek a vision from a prophet; priestly instruction will disappear, along with counsel from the elders.

“I looked for a man from among them who would repair the wall and stand in the gap before me on behalf of the land, so that I would not destroy it, but I found no one. ¹ 

When I say to the wicked, ‘O wicked man, you must certainly die,’ ¹  and you do not warn ²  the wicked about his behavior, ³  the wicked man will die for his iniquity, but I will hold you accountable for his death. ⁴ 

My sheep wandered over all the mountains and on every high hill. My sheep were scattered over the entire face of the earth with no one looking or searching for them.

I will seek the lost and bring back the strays; I will bandage the injured and strengthen the sick, but the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will feed them – with judgment!

But Daniel made up his mind ¹  that he would not defile ²  himself with the royal delicacies or the royal wine. ³  He therefore asked the overseer of the court officials for permission not to defile himself.

In every matter of wisdom and ¹  insight the king asked them about, he found them to be ten times ²  better than any of the magicians and astrologers that were in his entire empire.

While I, Daniel, was watching the vision, I sought to understand it. Now one who appeared to be a man was standing before me.

Afterward, the Israelites will turn and seek the Lord their God and their Davidic king. ¹  Then they will submit to the Lord in fear and receive his blessings ²  in the future. ³ 

The arrogance of Israel testifies against him, yet they refuse to return to the Lord their God! In spite of all this they refuse to seek him!

People ¹  will stagger from sea to sea, ²  and from the north around to the east. They will wander about looking for a revelation from ³  the Lord, but they will not find any. ⁴ 

Everyone who sees you will turn away from you in disgust; they will say, ‘Nineveh has been devastated! Who will lament for her?’ There will be no one to comfort you!” ¹ 

Many peoples and powerful nations will come to Jerusalem to seek the Lord who rules over all and to ask his favor.

For the lips of a priest should preserve knowledge of sacred things, and people should seek instruction from him ¹  because he is the messenger of the Lord who rules over all.

No one who has even a small portion of the Spirit in him does this. ¹  What did our ancestor ²  do when seeking a child from God? Be attentive, then, to your own spirit, for one should not be disloyal to the wife he took in his youth. ³ 

When Pharaoh heard ¹  about this event, ²  he sought to kill Moses. So Moses fled ³  from Pharaoh and settled in the land of Midian, ⁴  and he settled ⁵  by a certain well. ⁶ 

¹ Moses took ²  the tent ³  and pitched it outside the camp, at a good distance ⁴  from the camp, and he called it the tent of meeting. Anyone ⁵  seeking ⁶  the Lord would go out to the tent of meeting that was outside the camp.

If we have built ¹  an altar for ourselves to turn back from following the Lord by making ²  burnt sacrifices and grain offerings on it, or by offering ³  tokens of peace ⁴  on it, the Lord himself will punish us. ⁵ 

Now Barak was chasing Sisera. Jael went out to welcome him. She said to him, “Come here and I will show you the man you are searching for.” He went with her into the tent, ¹  and there he saw Sisera sprawled out dead ²  with the tent peg in his temple.