and took off after the prophet, ¹  whom he found sitting under an oak tree. He asked him, “Are you the prophet ²  from Judah?” He answered, “Yes, I am.”

He said to her, “Hand me your son.” He took him from her arms, carried him to the upper room where he was staying, and laid him down on his bed.

Micaiah ¹  said, “That being the case, hear the word of the Lord. I saw the Lord sitting on his throne, with all the heavenly assembly standing on his right and on his left.

Joash passed away ¹  and Jeroboam succeeded him on the throne. ²  Joash was buried in Samaria with the kings of Israel.

In the east they settled as far as the entrance to the desert that stretches to the Euphrates River, for their cattle had increased in numbers in the land of Gilead.

Everyone who held the words of the God of Israel in awe ¹  gathered around me because of the unfaithful acts of the people of the exile. ²  Devastated, I continued to sit there until the evening offering.

How blessed ²  is the one ³  who does not follow ⁴  the advice ⁵  of the wicked, ⁶  or stand in the pathway ⁷  with sinners, or sit in the assembly ⁸  of scoffers! ⁹ 

For the music director; according to the shushan-eduth style; ²  a psalm of Asaph. O shepherd of Israel, pay attention, you who lead Joseph like a flock of sheep! You who sit enthroned above the winged angels, ³  reveal your splendor! ⁴ 

In the year of King Uzziah’s death, ¹  I saw the sovereign master ²  seated on a high, elevated throne. The hem of his robe filled the temple.

For people will live in Zion; in Jerusalem ¹  you will weep no more. ²  When he hears your cry of despair, he will indeed show you mercy; when he hears it, he will respond to you. ³ 

No longer will they build a house only to have another live in it, ¹  or plant a vineyard only to have another eat its fruit, ²  for my people will live as long as trees, ³  and my chosen ones will enjoy to the fullest what they have produced. ⁴ 

The Lord says, “I will restore the ruined houses of the descendants of Jacob. I will show compassion on their ruined homes. ¹  Every city will be rebuilt on its former ruins. ²  Every fortified dwelling will occupy its traditional site. ³ 

For I, the Lord, promise: “David will never lack a successor to occupy ¹  the throne over the nation of Israel. ² 

Edom will be destroyed like Sodom and Gomorrah and the towns that were around them. No one will live there. No human being will settle in it,” says the Lord.

“Hazor will become a permanent wasteland, a place where only jackals live. ¹  No one will live there. No human being will settle in it.” ² 

The towns of Babylonia have become heaps of ruins. She has become a dry and barren desert. No one lives in those towns any more. No one even passes through them. ¹ 

Only the prince may sit in it to eat a sacrificial meal ¹  before the Lord; he will enter by way of the porch of the gate and will go out by the same way.”

Should you not have obeyed the words that the Lord cried out through the former prophets when Jerusalem ¹  was peacefully inhabited and her surrounding cities, the Negev, and the Shephelah ²  were also populated?

The Lord also will deliver the homes ¹  of Judah first, so that the splendor of the kingship ²  of David and of the people of Jerusalem may not exceed that of Judah.

So when God destroyed ¹  the cities of the region, ²  God honored ³  Abraham’s request. He removed Lot ⁴  from the midst of the destruction when he destroyed ⁵  the cities Lot had lived in.