This is what the Lord, your protector, ¹  says, the one who formed you in the womb: “I am the Lord, who made everything, who alone stretched out the sky, who fashioned the earth all by myself, ² 

I will hand over all the wealth of this city to their enemies. I will hand over to them all the fruits of the labor of the people of this city and all their prized possessions, as well as all the treasures of the kings of Judah. Their enemies will seize it all as plunder ¹  and carry it off to Babylon.

“Get a scroll. ¹  Write on it everything I have told you to say ²  about Israel, Judah, and all the other nations since I began to speak to you in the reign of Josiah until now. ³ 

But I will strip everything away from Esau’s descendants. I will uncover their hiding places so they cannot hide. Their children, relatives, and neighbors will all be destroyed. Not one of them will be left!

The Lord says, ¹  “Attack ²  the land of Merathaim and the people who live in Pekod! ³  Pursue, kill, and completely destroy them! ⁴  Do just as I have commanded you! ⁵ 

ג (Gimel) In fierce anger ¹  he destroyed ²  the whole army ³  of Israel. He withdrew his right hand ⁴  as the enemy attacked. ⁵  He was like a raging fire in the land of Jacob; ⁶  it consumed everything around it. ⁷ 

Therefore this is what the sovereign Lord says: Look, I am about to give the land of Egypt to King Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon. He will carry off her wealth, capture her loot, and seize her plunder; it will be his army’s wages.

The first of all the first fruits and all contributions of any kind ¹  will be for the priests; you will also give to the priest the first portion of your dough, so that a blessing may rest on your house.

Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and exalt and glorify the King of heaven, for all his deeds are right and his ways are just. He is able to bring down those who live ¹  in pride.

The LORD was mindful of the calamity, and he brought it on us. For the LORD our God is just ¹  in all he has done, ²  and we have not obeyed him. ³ 

“Be sure of this, ¹  the time is ²  coming,” says the Lord, “when the plowman will catch up to the reaper ³  and the one who stomps the grapes ⁴  will overtake ⁵  the planter. ⁶  Juice will run down the slopes, ⁷  it will flow down all the hillsides. ⁸ 

‘for there will be a peaceful time of sowing, the vine will produce its fruit and the ground its yield, and the skies ¹  will rain down dew. Then I will allow the remnant of my people to possess all these things.

His winnowing fork ¹  is in his hand, and he will clean out his threshing floor and will gather his wheat into the storehouse, ²  but the chaff he will burn up with inextinguishable fire.” ³ 

“The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure, hidden in a field, that a person found and hid. Then because of joy he went and sold all that he had and bought that field.

He said to them, “Elijah does indeed come first, and restores all things. And why is it written that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be despised?

His winnowing fork ¹  is in his hand to clean out his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his storehouse, ²  but the chaff he will burn up with inextinguishable fire.” ³ 

“Return to your home, ¹  and declare ²  what God has done for you.” ³  So ⁴  he went away, proclaiming throughout the whole town ⁵  what Jesus ⁶  had done for him.

Therefore I sent for you at once, and you were kind enough to come. ¹  So now we are all here in the presence of God ²  to listen ³  to everything the Lord has commanded you to say to us.” ⁴ 

When ¹  Peter came to himself, he said, “Now I know for certain that the Lord has sent his angel and rescued ²  me from the hand ³  of Herod ⁴  and from everything the Jewish people ⁵  were expecting to happen.”

and said, “You who are full of all deceit and all wrongdoing, ¹  you son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness – will you not stop making crooked the straight paths of the Lord? ²