“The Lord who rules over all asserts, ‘I am about to save my people from the lands of the east and the west.

And I will bring them to settle within Jerusalem. They will be my people, and I will be their God, ¹  in truth and righteousness.’

Many peoples and powerful nations will come to Jerusalem to seek the Lord who rules over all and to ask his favor.

On that day the Lord their God will deliver them as the flock of his people, for they are the precious stones of a crown sparkling over his land.

Then I took my staff “Pleasantness” and cut it in two to annul my covenant that I had made with all the people.

“I am about to make Jerusalem ¹  a cup that brings dizziness ²  to all the surrounding nations; indeed, Judah will also be included when Jerusalem is besieged.

“Therefore, I have caused you to be ignored and belittled before all people to the extent to which you are not following after me and are showing partiality in your ¹  instruction.”

¹ When the people saw that Moses delayed ²  in coming down ³  from the mountain, they ⁴  gathered around Aaron and said to him, “Get up, ⁵  make us gods ⁶  that will go before us. As for this fellow Moses, ⁷  the man who brought us up from the land of Egypt, we do not know what ⁸  has become of him!”

He said, “See, I am going to make ¹  a covenant before all your people. I will do wonders such as have not been done ²  in all the earth, nor in any nation. All the people among whom you live will see the work of the Lord, for it is a fearful thing that I am doing with you. ³ 

He and all his men ¹  went up on Mount Zalmon. He ²  took an ax ³  in his hand and cut off a tree branch. He put it ⁴  on his shoulder and said to his men, “Quickly, do what you have just seen me do!” ⁵ 

But the army said to Saul, “Should Jonathan, who won this great victory in Israel, die? May it never be! As surely as the Lord lives, not a single hair of his head will fall to the ground! For it is with the help of God that he has acted today.” So the army rescued Jonathan from death. ¹ 

Then listen from your heavenly dwelling place and answer all the prayers of the foreigners. ¹  Then all the nations of the earth will acknowledge your reputation, ²  obey ³  you like your people Israel do, and recognize that this temple I built belongs to you. ⁴ 

From the city he took a eunuch who was in charge of the soldiers, five ¹  of the king’s advisers ²  who were discovered in the city, an official army secretary who drafted citizens ³  for military service, and sixty citizens from the people of the land who were discovered in the city.

Then listen from your heavenly dwelling place and answer all the prayers of the foreigners. ¹  Then all the nations of the earth will acknowledge your reputation, ²  obey ³  you like your people Israel do, and recognize that this temple I built belongs to you. ⁴ 

Because he has done this,” ¹  the Lord says, “I will punish Shemaiah the Nehelamite and his whole family. There will not be any of them left to experience the good things that I will do for my people. I, the Lord, affirm it! For he counseled rebellion against the Lord.”’” ² 

So these officials said to the king, “This man must be put to death. For he is demoralizing ¹  the soldiers who are left in the city as well as all the other people there by these things he is saying. ²  This ³  man is not seeking to help these people but is trying to harm them.” ⁴ 

Then Ishmael took captive all the people who were still left alive in Mizpah. This included the royal princesses ¹  and all the rest of the people in Mizpah that Nebuzaradan, the captain of the royal guard, had put under the authority of Gedaliah son of Ahikam. Ishmael son of Nethaniah took all these people captive and set out to cross over to the Ammonites.

From the city he took an official who was in charge of the soldiers, seven of the king’s advisers who were discovered in the city, an official army secretary who drafted citizens ¹  for military service, and sixty citizens who were discovered in the middle of the city.

The king’s scribes were quickly ¹  summoned – in the third month (that is, the month of Sivan), on the twenty-third day. ²  They wrote out ³  everything that Mordecai instructed to the Jews and to the satraps and the governors and the officials of the provinces all the way from India to Ethiopia ⁴  – a hundred and twenty-seven provinces in all – to each province in its own script and to each people in their own language, and to the Jews according to their own script and their own language.

And the Lord said, “If as one people all sharing a common language ¹  they have begun to do this, then ²  nothing they plan to do will be beyond them. ³