Now ¹  the earth ²  was without shape and empty, ³  and darkness ⁴  was over the surface of the watery deep, ⁵  but the Spirit of God ⁶  was moving ⁷  over the surface ⁸  of the water. ⁹ 

After they journeyed ¹  from Rephidim, they came to the Desert of Sinai, and they camped in the desert; Israel camped there in front of the mountain. ² 

All the days of the desolation it will have the rest it did not have ¹  on your Sabbaths when you lived on it.

So the Israelites set out ¹  on their journeys from the wilderness of Sinai; and the cloud settled in the wilderness of Paran.

Like ¹  wild donkeys in the desert they ²  go out to their labor, ³  seeking diligently for food; the wasteland provides ⁴  food for them and for their children.

Look, the Lord’s day of judgment ¹  is coming; it is a day of cruelty and savage, raging anger, ²  destroying ³  the earth ⁴  and annihilating its sinners.

Here is a message about the Desert by the Sea: ¹  Like strong winds blowing in the south, ²  one invades from the desert, from a land that is feared.

Our holy temple, our pride and joy, ¹  the place where our ancestors praised you, has been burned with fire; all our prized possessions have been destroyed. ² 

I looked and saw that the fruitful land had become a desert and that all of the cities had been laid in ruins. The Lord had brought this all about because of his blazing anger. ¹ 

The Lord said, ¹  “I will make Jerusalem ²  a heap of ruins. Jackals will make their home there. ³  I will destroy the towns of Judah so that no one will be able to live in them.”

But Babylonia will be put to great shame. The land where you were born ¹  will be disgraced. Indeed, ²  Babylonia will become the least important of all nations. It will become a dry and barren desert.

ג (Gimel) Even the jackals ¹  nurse their young at their breast, ²  but my people ³  are cruel, like ostriches ⁴  in the desert.

ט (Tet) Those who died by the sword ¹  are better off than those who die of hunger, ²  those who ³  waste away, ⁴  struck down ⁵  from lack of ⁶  food. ⁷ 

And you must eat the food like you would a barley cake. You must bake it in front of them over a fire made with dried human excrement.” ¹ 

Therefore this is what the sovereign Lord says: ‘Because all of you ¹  have become slag, look out! – I am about to gather you in the middle of Jerusalem. 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 

For the Lord will restore ¹  the majesty ²  of Jacob, as well as ³  the majesty of Israel, though ⁴  their enemies have plundered them ⁵  and have destroyed their fields. ⁶ 

For it does not enter his heart but his stomach, and then goes out into the sewer.” ¹  (This means all foods are clean.) ² 

They journeyed from Sukkoth and camped in Etham, on the edge of the desert.

The entire company ¹  of Israelites murmured against Moses and Aaron in the desert.