Hear this, you priests! Pay attention, you Israelites! ¹  Listen closely, ²  O king! ³  For judgment is about to overtake you! ⁴  For you were like a trap ⁵  to Mizpah, ⁶  like a net ⁷  spread out to catch Tabor. ⁸ 

For the household gods ¹  have spoken wickedness, the soothsayers have seen a lie, and as for the dreamers, they have disclosed emptiness and give comfort in vain. Therefore the people set out like sheep and become scattered because they have no shepherd. ² 

But some itinerant ¹  Jewish exorcists tried to invoke the name ²  of the Lord Jesus over those who were possessed by ³  evil spirits, saying, “I sternly warn ⁴  you by Jesus whom Paul preaches.”

Against hope Abraham ¹  believed ²  in hope with the result that he became the father of many nations ³  according to the pronouncement, ⁴  “so will your descendants be.” ⁵ 

Some of you once lived this way. ¹  But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ ²  and by the Spirit of our God.

“To ¹  the angel of the church in Sardis write the following: ²  “This is the solemn pronouncement of ³  the one who holds ⁴  the seven spirits of God and the seven stars: ‘I know your deeds, that you have a reputation ⁵  that you are alive, but ⁶  in reality ⁷  you are dead.

“To ¹  the angel of the church in Philadelphia write the following: ²  “This is the solemn pronouncement of ³  the Holy One, the True One, who holds the key of David, who opens doors ⁴  no one can shut, and shuts doors ⁵  no one can open:

because his judgments are true and just. ¹  For he has judged ²  the great prostitute who corrupted the earth with her sexual immorality, and has avenged the blood of his servants ³  poured out by her own hands!” ⁴ 

In all cases of illegal possessions, ¹  whether for an ox, a donkey, a sheep, a garment, or any kind of lost item, about which someone says ‘This belongs to me,’ ²  the matter of the two of them will come before the judges, ³  and the one whom ⁴  the judges declare guilty ⁵  must repay double to his neighbor.

When the seventh day comes ¹  he must shave all his hair – his head, his beard, his eyebrows, all his hair – and he must wash his clothes, bathe his body in water, and so be clean. ² 

No man ¹  from the descendants of Aaron who is diseased or has a discharge ²  may eat the holy offerings until he becomes clean. The one ³  who touches anything made unclean by contact with a dead person, ⁴  or a man who has a seminal emission, ⁵ 

When David went home to pronounce a blessing on his own house, ¹  Michal, Saul’s daughter, came out to meet him. ²  She said, “How the king of Israel has distinguished ³  himself this day! He has exposed himself today before his servants’ slave girls the way a vulgar fool ⁴  might do!”

he ¹  sent his son Joram ²  to King David to extend his best wishes ³  and to pronounce a blessing on him for his victory over Hadadezer, for Toi had been at war with Hadadezer. ⁴  He brought with him various items made of silver, gold, and bronze. ⁵ 

he sent his son Hadoram ¹  to King David to extend his best wishes ²  and to pronounce a blessing on him for his victory over Hadadezer, for Tou had been at war with Hadadezer. ³  He also sent various items made of gold, silver, and bronze. ⁴ 

If the king is so inclined, ¹  let a royal edict go forth from him, and let it be written in the laws of Persia and Media that cannot be repealed, ²  that Vashti ³  may not come into the presence of King Ahasuerus, and let the king convey her royalty to another ⁴  who is more deserving than she. ⁵ 

I will see to it that all the Judean remnant that was determined to go ¹  and live in the land of Egypt will be destroyed. Here in the land of Egypt they will fall in battle ²  or perish from starvation. People of every class ³  will die in war or from starvation. They will become an object of horror and ridicule, an example of those who have been cursed and that people use in pronouncing a curse. ⁴ 

But ¹  listen to what the Lord has to say, all you people of Judah who are living in the land of Egypt. The Lord says, ‘I hereby swear by my own great name that none of the people of Judah who are living anywhere in Egypt will ever again invoke my name in their oaths! Never again will any of them use it in an oath saying, “As surely as the Lord God lives….” ² 

This announcement is by the decree of the sentinels; this decision is by the pronouncement of the holy ones, so that ¹  those who are alive may understand that the Most High has authority over human kingdoms, ²  and he bestows them on whomever he wishes. He establishes over them even the lowliest of human beings.’

Now in that very moment ¹  this pronouncement about ²  Nebuchadnezzar came true. ³  He was driven from human society, he ate grass like oxen, and his body became damp with the dew of the sky, until his hair became long like an eagle’s feathers, and his nails like a bird’s claws. ⁴ 

Her ¹  leaders take bribes when they decide legal cases, ²  her priests proclaim rulings for profit, and her prophets read omens for pay. Yet they claim to trust ³  the Lord and say, “The Lord is among us. ⁴  Disaster will not overtake ⁵  us!”