We therefore are informing the king that if this city is rebuilt and its walls are completed, you will not retain control ¹  of this portion of Trans-Euphrates.”

Now give orders that these men cease their work and that this city not be rebuilt until such time as I so instruct. ¹ 

The builders to a man had their swords strapped to their sides while they were building. But the trumpeter ¹  remained with me.

This will happen because ¹  the people of this city have aroused my anger and my wrath since the time they built it until now. ²  They have made me so angry that I am determined to remove ³  it from my sight.

No one will use any of your stones as a cornerstone. No one will use any of them in the foundation of his house. For you will lie desolate forever,” ¹  says the Lord. ² 

He burned down the Lord’s temple, the royal palace, and all the houses in Jerusalem, including every large house.

You have not gone up in the breaks in the wall, nor repaired a wall for the house of Israel that it would stand strong in the battle on the day of the Lord.

I will multiply your people ¹  – the whole house of Israel, all of it. The cities will be populated and the ruins rebuilt.

“‘This is what the sovereign Lord says: In the day I cleanse you from all your sins, I will populate the cities and the ruins will be rebuilt.

There was a row of masonry around each of the four courts, and places for boiling offerings were made under the rows all around.

They mock kings and laugh at rulers. They laugh at every fortified city; they build siege ramps ¹  and capture them.

“Everyone ¹  who hears these words of mine and does them is like ²  a wise man ³  who built his house on rock.

And he said to them, ¹  “Do you see all these things? I tell you the truth, ²  not one stone will be left on another. ³  All will be torn down!” ⁴ 

So then you are no longer foreigners and noncitizens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of God’s household,

you yourselves, as living stones, are built up as a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood and to offer ¹  spiritual sacrifices that are acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

David said, “My son Solomon is just an inexperienced young man, ¹  and the temple to be built for the Lord must be especially magnificent so it will become famous and be considered splendid by all the nations. ²  Therefore I will make preparations for its construction.” So David made extensive preparations before he died.

Hezekiah ¹  energetically rebuilt ²  every broken wall. He erected towers and an outer wall, ³  and fortified the terrace of the City of David. ⁴  He made many weapons and shields.

“I also hereby issue orders as to what you are to do with those elders of the Jews in order to rebuild this temple of God. From the royal treasury, from the taxes of Trans-Euphrates the complete costs are to be given to these men, so that there may be no interruption of the work. ¹ 

Have you been thinking all this time ¹  that we have been defending ourselves to you? We are speaking in Christ before God, and everything we do, dear friends, is to build you up. ² 

Then the Lord God made ¹  a woman from the part he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man.