For David said, “The Lord God of Israel has given his people rest and has permanently settled in Jerusalem. ¹ 

For we are resident foreigners and nomads in your presence, like all our ancestors; ¹  our days are like a shadow on the earth, without security. ² 

“God does not really live with humankind on the earth! ¹  Look, if the sky and the highest heaven cannot contain you, how much less this temple I have built!

Asa took all the silver and gold that was left in the treasuries of the Lord’s temple and of the royal palace and sent it to King Ben Hadad of Syria, ruler in Damascus, along with this message:

In Jerusalem Jehoshaphat appointed some Levites, priests, and Israelite family leaders to judge on behalf of the Lord ¹  and to settle disputes among the residents of Jerusalem. ² 

Jehoshaphat bowed down with his face toward the ground, and all the people of Judah ¹  and the residents of Jerusalem fell down before the Lord and worshiped him. ² 

He also built high places on the hills of Judah; he encouraged the residents of Jerusalem to be unfaithful to the Lord ¹  and led Judah away from the Lord. ² 

The Lord delivered Hezekiah and the residents of Jerusalem from the power of King Sennacherib of Assyria and from all the other nations. ¹  He made them secure on every side. ² 

But then Hezekiah and the residents of Jerusalem humbled themselves and abandoned their pride, and the Lord was not angry with them for the rest of Hezekiah’s reign. ¹ 

But Manasseh misled the people of ¹  Judah and the residents of Jerusalem so that they sinned more than the nations whom the Lord had destroyed ahead of the Israelites.

“This is what the Lord says: ‘I am about to bring disaster on this place and its residents, the details of which are recorded in the scroll which they read before the king of Judah.

He made all who were in Jerusalem and Benjamin agree to it. ¹  The residents of Jerusalem acted in accordance with the covenant of God, the God of their ancestors.

They established the altar on its foundations, even though they were in terror of the local peoples, ¹  and they offered burnt offerings on it to the Lord, both the morning and the evening offerings.

Now give praise to the Lord God of your fathers, and do his will. Separate yourselves from the local residents ¹  and from these foreign wives.”

But ¹  the tents of robbers are peaceful, and those who provoke God are confident ²  – who carry their god in their hands. ³ 

Their grave becomes their permanent residence, their eternal dwelling place. ¹  They name their lands after themselves, ² 

But it is said of Zion’s residents, ¹  “Each one of these ²  was born in her, and the sovereign One ³  makes her secure.” ⁴ 

How tragic that the once-faithful city has become a prostitute! ¹  She was once a center of ²  justice, fairness resided in her, but now only murderers. ³ 

He will become a sanctuary, ¹  but a stone that makes a person trip, and a rock that makes one stumble – to the two houses of Israel. ²  He will become ³  a trap and a snare to the residents of Jerusalem. ⁴ 

A wolf will reside ¹  with a lamb, and a leopard will lie down with a young goat; an ox and a young lion will graze together, ²  as a small child leads them along.