Caravans ¹  turn aside from their routes; they go ²  into the wasteland ³  and perish. ⁴ 

Therefore ¹  they will eat from the fruit ²  of their way, ³  and they will be stuffed full ⁴  of their own counsel.

May their path be ¹  dark and slippery, as the Lord’s angel chases them!

The Lord said to me, ¹  “I have made you like a metal assayer to test my people like ore. ²  You are to observe them and evaluate how they behave.” ³ 

His troops ¹  advance together; they throw up ²  a siege ramp against me, and they camp around my tent.

I chose ¹  the way for them ²  and sat as their chief; ³  I lived like a king among his troops; I was like one who comforts mourners. ⁴ 

This is the destiny of fools, ¹  and of those who approve of their philosophy. ²  (Selah)

But as for me, my eye will not pity them nor will I spare ¹  them; I hereby repay them for what they have done.” ² 

But those whose hearts are devoted to detestable things and abominations, I hereby repay them for what they have done, ¹  says the sovereign Lord.”

So I have poured my anger on them, and destroyed them with the fire of my fury. I hereby repay them for what they have done, ¹  declares the sovereign Lord.”

“Yet your people ¹  say, ‘The behavior ²  of the Lord is not right,’ ³  when it is their behavior that is not right.

“A noise is heard on the hilltops. It is the sound of the people of Israel crying and pleading to their gods. Indeed they have followed sinful ways; ¹  they have forgotten to be true to the Lord their God. ² 

So the paths they follow will be dark and slippery. They will stumble and fall headlong. For I will bring disaster on them. A day of reckoning is coming for them.” ¹  The Lord affirms it! ² 

“Son of man, when the house of Israel was living on their own land, they defiled it by their behavior ¹  and their deeds. In my sight their behavior was like the uncleanness of a woman having her monthly period.

and the Lord will fulfill his promise to me, ¹  ‘If your descendants watch their step ²  and live faithfully in my presence ³  with all their heart and being, ⁴  then,’ he promised, ⁵  ‘you will not fail to have a successor on the throne of Israel.’ ⁶ 

Yet some survivors will be left in it, sons and daughters who will be brought out. They will come out to you, and when you see their behavior and their deeds, you will be consoled about the catastrophe I have brought on Jerusalem – for everything I brought on it.

They will console you when you see their behavior and their deeds, because you will know that it was not without reason that I have done everything which I have done in it, declares the sovereign Lord.”

Now, O Lord, God of Israel, keep the promise you made to your servant, my father David, when you said, ‘You will never fail to have a successor ruling before me on the throne of Israel, ¹  provided that your descendants watch their step and serve me as you have done.’ ² 

Now, O Lord God of Israel, keep the promise you made to your servant, my father David, when you said, ‘You will never fail to have a successor ruling before me on the throne of Israel, ¹  provided that your descendants watch their step and obey my law as you have done.’ ²