“If thieves came to rob you ¹  during the night, ²  they would steal only as much as they wanted! ³  If grape pickers came to harvest your vineyards, ⁴  they would leave some behind for the poor! ⁵  But you will be totally destroyed! ⁶ 

Moreover, I have called for a drought that will affect the fields, the hill country, the grain, new wine, fresh olive oil, and everything that grows from the ground; it also will harm people, animals, and everything they produce.’” ¹ 

For I will gather all the nations against Jerusalem ¹  to wage war; the city will be taken, its houses plundered, and the women raped. Then half of the city will go into exile, but the remainder of the people will not be taken away. ² 

They ¹  began to accuse ²  him, saying, “We found this man subverting ³  our nation, forbidding ⁴  us to pay the tribute tax ⁵  to Caesar ⁶  and claiming that he himself is Christ, ⁷  a king.”

I ask then, they did not stumble into an irrevocable fall, ¹  did they? Absolutely not! But by their transgression salvation has come to the Gentiles, to make Israel ²  jealous.

See to it that no one comes short of the grace of God, that no one be like a bitter root springing up ¹  and causing trouble, and through him many become defiled.

So also ¹  Sodom and Gomorrah and the neighboring towns, ²  since they indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire ³  in a way similar to ⁴  these angels, ⁵  are now displayed as an example by suffering the punishment of eternal fire.

Just then ¹  a major earthquake took place and a tenth of the city collapsed; seven thousand people ²  were killed in the earthquake, and the rest were terrified and gave glory to the God of heaven.

The ¹  great city was split into three parts and the cities of the nations ²  collapsed. ³  So ⁴  Babylon the great was remembered before God, and was given the cup ⁵  filled with the wine made of God’s furious wrath. ⁶ 

The ¹  ten horns that you saw, and the beast – these will hate the prostitute and make her desolate and naked. They ²  will consume her flesh and burn her up with fire. ³ 

And he said to me, “Get up, go down at once from here because your people whom you brought out of Egypt have sinned! They have quickly turned from the way I commanded them and have made for themselves a cast metal image.” ¹ 

They will fine him one hundred shekels of silver and give them to the young woman’s father, for the man who made the accusation ¹  ruined the reputation ²  of an Israelite virgin. She will then become his wife and he may never divorce her as long as he lives.

They ¹  will devour the offspring of your livestock and the produce of your soil until you are destroyed. They will not leave you with any grain, new wine, olive oil, calves of your herds, ²  or lambs of your flocks ³  until they have destroyed you.

When he saw her, he ripped his clothes and said, “Oh no! My daughter! You have completely ruined me! ¹  You have brought me disaster! ²  I made an oath to the Lord, and I cannot break it.” ³ 

She replied, “In that case, ¹  let the king invoke the name of ²  the Lord your God so that the avenger of blood may not kill! Then they will not destroy my son!” He replied, “As surely as the Lord lives, not a single hair of your son’s head ³  will fall to the ground.”

He brought all the priests from the cities of Judah and ruined ¹  the high places where the priests had offered sacrifices, from Geba to Beer Sheba. ²  He tore down the high place of the goat idols ³  situated at the entrance of the gate of Joshua, the city official, on the left side of the city gate.

The king ruined the high places east of Jerusalem, south of the Mount of Destruction, ¹  that King Solomon of Israel had built for the detestable Sidonian goddess Astarte, the detestable Moabite god Chemosh, and the horrible Ammonite god Milcom.

When Josiah turned around, he saw the tombs there on the hill. So he ordered the bones from the tombs to be brought; ¹  he burned them on the altar and defiled it. This fulfilled the Lord’s announcement made by the prophet while Jeroboam stood by the altar during a festival. King Josiah ²  turned and saw the grave of the prophet who had foretold this. ³ 

The people say, ¹  “Why are we just sitting here? Let us gather together inside the fortified cities. ²  Let us at least die there fighting, ³  since the Lord our God has condemned us to die. He has condemned us to drink the poison waters of judgment ⁴  because we have sinned against him. ⁵ 

I, the Lord, affirm ¹  that I am opposed to those prophets who dream up lies and report them. They are misleading my people with their reckless lies. ²  I did not send them. I did not commission them. They are not helping these people at all. ³  I, the Lord, affirm it!” ⁴