So the paths they follow will be dark and slippery. They will stumble and fall headlong. For I will bring disaster on them. A day of reckoning is coming for them.” ¹  The Lord affirms it! ² 

I will look after their welfare ¹  and will restore them to this land. There I will build them up and will not tear them down. I will plant them firmly in the land ²  and will not uproot them. ³ 

I will indeed ¹  see to it that disaster, not prosperity, happens to them. ²  All the people of Judah who are in the land of Egypt will die in war or from starvation until not one of them is left.

Their tents and their flocks will be taken away. Their tent curtains, equipment, and camels will be carried off. People will shout ¹  to them, ‘Terror is all around you!’” ² 

So he said to me, “All right then, I will substitute cow’s manure instead of human excrement. You will cook your food over it.”

I will stretch out my hand against them ¹  and make the land a desolate waste from the wilderness to Riblah, ²  in all the places where they live. Then they will know that I am the Lord!”

As I watched, I saw ¹  on the platform ²  above the top of the cherubim something like a sapphire, resembling the shape of a throne, appearing above them.

She bestowed her sexual favors on them; all of them were the choicest young men of Assyria. She defiled herself with all whom she desired ¹  – with all their idols.

I will set one shepherd over them, and he will feed them – namely, my servant David. ¹  He will feed them and will be their shepherd.

He made me walk all around among them. ¹  I realized ²  there were a great many bones in the valley and they were very dry.

“‘My servant David will be king over them; there will be one shepherd for all of them. They will follow ¹  my regulations and carefully observe my statutes. ² 

“‘When they enter the gates of the inner court, they must wear linen garments; they must not have any wool on them when they minister in the inner gates of the court and in the temple.

and one sheep from each flock of two hundred, from the watered places of Israel, for a grain offering, burnt offering, and peace offering, to make atonement for them, declares the sovereign Lord.

Even when their enemies drive them into captivity, ¹  from there ²  I will command the sword to kill them. I will not let them out of my sight; they will experience disaster, not prosperity.” ³ 

As a result they ¹  will conquer those left in Edom ²  and all the nations subject to my rule.” ³  The Lord, who is about to do this, is speaking!

Therefore night will fall, and you will receive no visions; ¹  it will grow dark, and you will no longer be able to read the omens. ²  The sun will set on these prophets, and the daylight will turn to darkness over their heads. ³ 

I will transform the lame into the nucleus of a new nation, ¹  and those far off ²  into a mighty nation. The Lord will reign over them on Mount Zion, from that day forward and forevermore.” ³ 

Those who are left from the kingdom of Judah ¹  will take possession of it. ²  By the sea ³  they ⁴  will graze, in the houses of Ashkelon they will lie down in the evening, for the Lord their God will intervene for them ⁵  and restore their prosperity. ⁶ 

The Lord will terrify them, ¹  for ²  he will weaken ³  all the gods of the earth. All the distant nations will worship the Lord in their own lands. ⁴ 

“I am about to punish them ¹  in such a way,” he says, “that they will be looted by their own slaves.” Then you will know that the Lord who rules over all has sent me.