This was the order in which they carried out their assigned responsibilities when they entered the Lord’s temple, according to the regulations given them by their ancestor ¹  Aaron, just as the Lord God of Israel had instructed him. ² 

When ¹  I close up the sky ²  so that it doesn’t rain, or command locusts to devour the land’s vegetation, ³  or send a plague among my people,

You must serve me as your father David did. Do everything I commanded and obey my rules and regulations. ¹ 

We have behaved corruptly against you, not obeying the commandments, the statutes, and the judgments that you commanded your servant Moses.

Please recall the word you commanded your servant Moses: ‘If you act unfaithfully, I will scatter you among the nations. ¹ 

I then put in charge over Jerusalem ¹  my brother Hanani and Hananiah ²  the chief of the citadel, for he was a faithful man and feared God more than many do.

They discovered written in the law that the LORD had commanded through ¹  Moses that the Israelites should live in temporary shelters during the festival of the seventh month,

You made known to them your holy Sabbath; you issued commandments, statutes, and law to them through ¹  Moses your servant.

Now Esther had not disclosed her people or her lineage, ¹  for Mordecai had instructed her not to do so. ² 

So Esther called for Hathach, one of the king’s eunuchs who had been placed at her service, ¹  and instructed him to find out the cause and reason for Mordecai’s behavior. ² 

It is like the dew of Hermon, ¹  which flows down upon the hills of Zion. ²  Indeed ³  that is where the Lord has decreed a blessing will be available – eternal life. ⁴ 

I will make it a wasteland; no one will prune its vines or hoe its ground, ¹  and thorns and briers will grow there. I will order the clouds not to drop any rain on it.

I sent him ¹  against a godless ²  nation, I ordered him to attack the people with whom I was angry, ³  to take plunder and to carry away loot, to trample them down ⁴  like dirt in the streets.

This is what the Lord says, the Holy One of Israel, ¹  the one who formed him, concerning things to come: ²  “How dare you question me ³  about my children! How dare you tell me what to do with ⁴  the work of my own hands!

I made the earth, I created the people who live ¹  on it. It was me – my hands ²  stretched out the sky, ³  I give orders to all the heavenly lights. ⁴ 

I announced them to you beforehand; before they happened, I predicted them for you, so you could never say, ‘My image did these things, my idol, my cast image, decreed them.’

The Lord said to me, “Do not say, ‘I am too young.’ But go ¹  to whomever I send you and say whatever I tell you.

“But you, Jeremiah, ¹  get yourself ready! ²  Go and tell these people everything I instruct you to say. Do not be terrified of them, or I will give you good reason to be terrified of them. ³ 

Consider this: ¹  When I spoke to your ancestors after I brought them out of Egypt, I did not merely give them commands about burnt offerings and sacrifices.

Many days later the Lord said to me, “Go at once to Perath and get ¹  the shorts I ordered you to bury there.”