“Son of man, suppose a country sins against me by being unfaithful, and I stretch out my hand against it, cut off its bread supply, ¹  cause famine to come on it, and kill both people and animals.

So see here, I have stretched out my hand against you and cut off your rations. I have delivered you into the power of those who hate you, the daughters of the Philistines, who were ashamed by your obscene conduct.

As surely as I live, declares the sovereign Lord, with a powerful hand and an outstretched arm, ¹  and with an outpouring of rage, I will be king over you.

I will bring you out from the nations, and will gather you from the lands where you are scattered, with a powerful hand and an outstretched arm and with an outpouring of rage!

I will pour out my anger on you; the fire of my fury I will blow on you. I will hand you over to brutal men, who are skilled in destruction.

I will exact my vengeance upon Edom by the hand of my people Israel. They will carry out in Edom my anger and rage; they will experience ¹  my vengeance, declares the sovereign Lord.’”

So this is what the sovereign Lord says: Take note, I am about to stretch out my hand against the Philistines. I will kill ¹  the Cherethites ²  and destroy those who remain on the seacoast.

Therefore this is what the sovereign Lord says: Look, ¹  I am against ²  Pharaoh king of Egypt, and I will break his arms, the strong arm and the broken one, and I will make the sword drop from his hand.

I will strengthen the arms of the king of Babylon, and I will place my sword in his hand, but I will break the arms of Pharaoh, and he will groan like the fatally wounded before the king of Babylon. ¹ 

Say to it, ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says: “‘Look, I am against you, Mount Seir; I will stretch out my hand against you and turn you into a desolate ruin.

The hand ¹  of the Lord was on me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the Lord and placed ²  me in the midst of the valley, and it was full of bones.

When he brought me there, I saw ¹  a man whose appearance was like bronze, with a linen cord and a measuring stick in his hand. He was standing in the gateway.

I saw ¹  a wall all around the outside of the temple. ²  In the man’s hand was a measuring stick 10½ feet ³  long. He measured the thickness of the wall ⁴  as 10½ feet, ⁵  and its height as 10½ feet.

When the man went out toward the east with a measuring line in his hand, he measured 1,750 feet, ¹  and then he led me through water, which was ankle deep.

All the inhabitants of the earth are regarded as nothing. ¹  He does as he wishes with the army of heaven and with those who inhabit the earth. No one slaps ²  his hand and says to him, ‘What have you done?’

“Then the king of the south ¹  will be enraged and will march out to fight against the king of the north, who will also muster a large army, but that army will be delivered into his hand.

I will remove ¹  the ruler ²  from Ashdod, ³  the one who holds the royal scepter from Ashkelon. ⁴  I will strike Ekron ⁵  with my hand; ⁶  the rest of the Philistines will also die.” ⁷  The sovereign Lord has spoken!

Disaster will be inescapable, ¹  as if a man ran from a lion only to meet a bear, then escaped ²  into a house, leaned his hand against the wall, and was bitten by a poisonous snake.

Even if they could dig down into the netherworld, ¹  my hand would pull them up from there. Even if they could climb up to heaven, I would drag them down from there.

For who dares make light of small beginnings? These seven eyes ¹  will joyfully look on the tin tablet ²  in Zerubbabel’s hand. (These are the eyes of the Lord, which constantly range across the whole earth.)